Mr. Papantoniou, will meet with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, Solomon Passi, and President of SAE, Andrew Athens.

He also expressed his interest for cooperation with the Greek side on the Thessaloniki Technological Park.

The Minister of Macedonia-Thrace will complete his four-day visit to Germany today.

In the afternoon the Head of the Opposition will meet with former Chancellor of Germany, Helmut Kohl, who will speak at "The Economist" conference tonight.

In the afternoon, Mario Monti will have consecutive meetings with Minister of National Economy, Nikos Christodoulakis, and Development, Akis Tsohatzopoulos.

In the framework of the visit, the members of the Chinese delegation will visit industrial areas of the district, while they will participate in conferences with businessmen and official bodies.

67% of those asked disagrees with the positions and tactics followed by the organization, 22% agrees with the positions but disagrees with the tactics, 1.7% agrees both with the positions and the tactics, and 4.6% ask for it to continue its action.

64.5% characterized its members as terrorists and 11.6% as social revolutionaries. 60.5% believes that there are people hiding behind "N17" and 22.3% believes that it is an autonomous organization. 47.8% believes that there are various parties behind it,

12.5% believes that it is PASOK, 9.1% believes it is the CIA, 4.5% think it's EYP, 3.4% believes it is Leftist extremists, 2.9% think it is the far Right, and 2.1% believe it is the PAK.

The issues on which the meeting will focus will be the future cooperation of European institutions, Russian legislation on religion and protection of minorities in Belgium. Also, the legal situation of Gypsies in Europe, the "New Economy" in Europe, trai ning of employees in new technologies, the Red Cross International Committee activities, changes in religion in central and eastern Europe and the protection of forests and sea life.

They will also discuss the situation in the Middle East.

In his statements, Mr. Karamanlis pointed out that the US-British text on the Euro-army cannot be accepted by Greece in its present form. Mr. Karamanlis criticized the government for the position it had adopted in the past and offered his backing to the position it negotiates now. He stressed that things would have been different if the government had not been inactive for about a year in spite of the repeated remarks and warnings made by New Democracy.

Mr. Karamanlis characterized as very important the EU security and defense issues and underlined that especially for Greece their importance is even greater. He said that he made it clear to Mr. Solana that the Euro-army text cannot be accepted by Greece

in its present form, stressing that Greece cannot be a second rate country in terms of security. He added that the Greek citizens must feel safe like any other European citizen and Greece, which is a member of the EU, cannot be reduced to the same level with countries that are not EU member-states.

From his side, Mr. Solana stated that the dialogue on the Euro-army will continue to find the best possible solution. Speaking this morning in "The Economist" conference organized in Athens he referred to Turkey's EU accession prospect.

Of the stocks trading today, 213 recorded gains and 98 had losses, while the value of 66 stocks remained unchanged.

Ms. Dimitra Spiliopoulou.

Called to comment on the statements made by US President Bush according to which, Ariel Saron is "a man of peace", she responded that the specific characterization belongs to Mr. Bush.

The three leaders of Greece, Romania and Bulgaria, stated their commitment to fight terrorism, confront drug smuggling, while they will cooperate to improve the infrastructure of business mechanisms.

Prime Minister Kostas Simitis is being accompanied by Foreign Minister Giorgos Papandreou on his trip.

The three leaders examined the prospects for the cooperation of the three countries toward the strengthening of investments, the greater activation of economic chambers, the development of transportation infrastructures and the linking of energy and natu ral gas networks.

Greek Prime Minister Kostas Simitis stated that when the reconstruction of the Yugoslav network is completed there will be greater potential for the development of the energy market in the region.

The Athens-Bucharest-Sofia cooperation at a political level was also examined in the meeting and at this point, it was stressed that Greece backs the accession of Romania and Bulgaria into the European Union. It was also underlined that a regular communi cation takes place on this issue at a diplomatic level and that a Greek Foreign Ministry diplomatic mission is currently in progress aimed at backing the Balkan demands.

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