Athens News Agency: News in English (PM), 99-09-27

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr>

NEWS IN ENGLISH

Athens, Greece, 27/09/1999 (ANA)

MAIN HEADLINES

• PM promises housing before winter
• Govt slams back at opposition
• Athens 2004 gets new symbol
• FM says chance at solving Cyprus issue
• Govt denies reports of tripartite meeting
• Greek envoy hopes for Cyprus progress
• Police arrest Afghani illegal immigrants
• Web site to help Greek land owners
• Weather
• Foreign Exchange

NEWS IN DETAIL

Prime Minister Costas Simitis reiterated his promise on Monday that tent cities housing those made homeless by the September 7 quake would not become a permanent feature. Touring the grounds of the tent cities set up in the Aghion Anargyron and Kamatero municipalities, Simitis said that all the homeless would be provided with more permanent accommodation before the winter. Simitis was leading a delegation, comprised of the environment and interior ministers and MPs from the area.

Govt slams back at opposition

The government on Monday picked up the challenge thrown down by main opposition leader Costas Karamanlis over the weekend, saying that the ruling party was ready to deal with any development after Karamanlis said his party would not support a re-election of the president. "PASOK is ready to deal with any eventuality, since ND is linking the procedure to elect a president with petty party games," spokesman Dimitris Reppas said. The government, which wants elections at the end of its four-year mandate in September 2000, may be forced to the polls early if it fails to garner the requisite number of votes in Parliament to elect a president. Reppas called on Karamanlis, who had been speaking in Thessaloniki on his party's economic policies, to be silent rather than be a doomsday prophet.

Athens 2004 gets new symbol

Prime Minister Costas Simitis will meet with visiting International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch in Athens on Thursday, before both attend the presentation of the new Athens 2004 Games emblem. Simitis is scheduled to meet with the presidium of the Games organisers at 1 p.m. on Tuesday.

FM says chance at solving Cyprus issue

The present conjuncture was unique for enabling progress in the Cyprus issue, foreign minister George Papandreou said in a newspaper interview appearing today, adding his belief that the US would move actively in that direction. Papandreou, who was in New York last week for a UN General Assembly meeting and had sideline talks with several colleagues, including Turkish foreign minister Ismail Cem and US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, said that future Turkish membership in the European Union would be in Greece's long-term interests, but the stance to be held by Athens at December's EU summit hinged on Turkey's attitude on Greek-Turkish affairs and the Cyprus issue and on the guarantees Greece would secure from the EU on its national interests.

Govt denies reports of tripartite meeting

The government denied on Monday that there were plans in the pipeline for a tripartite summit between the leaders of the U.S., Greece and Turkey at the forthcoming OSCE summit in Istanbul. Government spokesman Dimitris Reppas denied reports that U.S. President Bill Clinton would confer together with Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis and Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit. "The climate of non-tension prevailing in Greek-Turkish relations is good," Reppas said. "It could provide the basis for the full normalisation of relations between the two countries, on the condition that Turkey change its stance on Cyprus and that it does not oppose Cyprus' accession to the European Union." "Right now, however, Turkey is not doing what it should," he added.

Greek envoy hopes for Cyprus progress

The interest displayed by the US and the other permament members of the UN Security Council affords an opportunity to overcome the impasse in the Cyprus issue and achieve substantive progress towards a solution, Greece's ambassador in Washington Alexandros Philon said in a televised interview on CNN late last night. Speaking after the publication in Greece and Turkey of an interview by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright saying the time had come for settlement of the Cyprus issue and calling on the Turkish Cypriots to enter into substantive negotiations, Philon said the key to settlement of the Cyprus issue was the exertion of pressure by the US on the Turkish side. He expressed hope that such pressure would be exerted during tomorrow's meeting between US President Bill Clinton and Turkish prime minister Bulent Ecevit at the White House.

Police arrest Afghani illegal immigrants

The Greek coastguard stopped a Turkish boat off the Dodecanese island of Kos early today as the crew tried to put ashore 41 illegal immigrants from Afghanistan. The Afghanis - 26 men, three women and 12 children - were packed in a small wooden boat. Questioned by the Kos harbour authorities they said they had paid 2,000 U.S. dollars each to the two Turkish boatmen to transfer them to Greece from the Turkish coast. The 41 Afghanis and the two Turks were taken before the local public prosecutor this morning on charges of illegal entry.

Web site to help Greek land owners

The Panhellenic Federation of Real Estate Owners (POMIDA) has set up a web site which will provide all land owners with information about when and how to declare their land to the National Land Register. The web site provides the full texts of the declarations and statements which must be made by the interested parties. It is expected to be widely used by owners of land resident abroad. POMIDA's home page can be found at www.pomida.gr. Some two million property owners in 275 municipalities around the country have until Oct. 5 to file their declarations. The register, which is expected to start initial operations in 2004, aims to protect public land from encroachment, formalise private ownership rights and provide revenue for the state.

WEATHER

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

Monday's rates (buying)
U.S. dollar          309.851
Pound sterling       509.293
Japanese yen (100)   296.479
French franc          49.542
German mark          166.159
Italian lira (100)    16.784
Irish Punt           412.638
Belgian franc          8.056
Finnish mark          54.657
Dutch guilder        147.469
Danish kr.            43.727
Austrian sch.         23.618
Spanish peseta         1.953
Swedish kr.           37.730
Norwegian kr.         39.680
Swiss franc          202.993
Port. Escudo           1.621
Can. dollar          210.304
Aus. dollar          201.054
Cyprus pound         563.218
Euro                 324.979

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