Mr. Gul's visit is a scheduled one and has been carefully prepared by the two sides. Mr. Gul will arrive in Athens tomorrow and will meet with Greek President Kostis Stephanopoulos, Prime Minister Kostas Simitis, right-wing main opposition party of New D emocracy leader Kostas Karamanlis and Foreign Minister Giorgos Papandreou.

During their stay in Athens they will meet with Greek President Kostis Stephanopoulos, Prime Minister Kostas Simitis, Parliament President Apostolos Kaklamanis, Greek Communist Party general secretary Mrs. Aleka Papariga and Coalition of the Left Party P resident Nikos Konstantopoulos.

There is progress in the sector of the economy that will become more obvious in the following months, stated to reporters. He clarified that a discussion has been made on the economy and it was established that there are signs of recovery at a European l evel as it was expected. The improvement is stable. Greece has the highest growth rate among the EU member states and it is capable of achieving even higher growth rates than the target set. He also said that the EU has moved ahead with the materializatio n of European programs aimed at strengthening the growth rates at a European level and Greece will benefit from this development.

Mr. Simitis briefed Mr. Stephanopoulos on current developments and referred to the Inter-Governmental Conference, the EU Summit meeting Brussels and the Greek-Turkish relations in view of the visit of Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul to Athens tomor row.

On the issue of the European Constitution, Mr. Simitis mentioned that no important progress has been made but there was convergence of views and certain extreme positions were overcome. He also said that the Italian EU Presidency will present a draft Con stitution and appeared optimistic that an agreement will be reached before the end of the year.

On the proposal that will formed by the Italian EU Presidency, he stated that it will be close enough to the views expressed by everybody but it will not cover one or two countries that have expressed fundamental disagreements.

Of the stocks trading today, a majority of 159 recorded gains and 113 had losses, while the value of 112 stocks remained unchanged.

The governing Socialist Party of PASOK voters are on the side of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (48%), while right-wing main opposition party of New Democracy voters support Archbishop Christodoulos (42%)

A total of 57% of the voters of the two major political parties in Greece support the State-Church separation.

Also, 52% call for an intervention by the State in case there is no agreement between the Patriarch and the Archbishop, while 53% call for the intervention to be in favor of the Church of Greece and 17% in favor of the Patriarchate.

A reservation on Mr. Powell's arrival had been expressed in spite of the fact that the invitation was confirmed and US officials had arrived for the diplomatic preparation of the visit, clarified Mr. Protopapas responding to a relevant question by report ers.

Called to comment on the results of the latest opinion poll, he responded that each opinion poll has its own elements and this is the reason why the opinion polls do not look alike. However, all elements are studied and evaluated. He stressed that the op inion polls do not predetermine the votes of the citizens, the political initiatives that will be undertaken will.

point, stated Greek government spokesman Christos Protopapas commenting on the speech of right-wing main opposition party of New Democracy leader Kostas Karamanlis before his party's Parliament deputies.

He said that it is clear that Mr. Karamanlis does not want the privatizations and the developments in the economy to continue, developments that strengthen the country's competitiveness, because he is interested more in serving the needs of his party in view of the elections and not the needs of the country and its economy.