Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-07-03

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

CONTENTS

[01] President Stephanopoulos arrives in Dublin for visit

[02] Simitis - Clerides - Athens meeting

[03] Foreign Exchange Rates-Tuesday

[04] Weather Forecast-Tuesday

[05] Maillis Group-Italian acquisition

[06] ASE-close

[07] Greece-tourist arrivals

[01] President Stephanopoulos arrives in Dublin for visit

DUBLIN (ANA - N. Megadoukas) - President Kostis Stephanopoulos arrived in Dublin on Monday on a three-day official visit to Ireland, the first such visit by a Greek head of state, for talks with Irish leaders.

He is accompanied by Alternate Foreign Minister Elizabeth Papazoi and Deputy National Economy Minister Yiannis Zapheiropoulos.

President Stephanopoulos will hold talks with Irish President Mary McAllis and Prime Minister Berty Ahern on Tuesday and address a Greek-Irish economic forum in Dublin.

[02] Simitis - Clerides - Athens meeting

"The Cyprus problem will always be a priority issue for Greece and will always be at the centre of the Greek government's attention and activities," Prime Minister Costas Simitis said on Monday after a two-hour meeting with Cyprus President Glafcos Clerides in Athens.

The aim of the meeting, Simitis told reporters in a press conference afterwards, was to exchange views on the latest developments in the Cyprus problem and review the positions of Greece and Cyprus in view of the third round of Cyprus proximity talks that begin in Geneva on Wednesday.

The prime minister underlined that relations between Greece and Turkey would never be fully normalised unless there is a solution to the Cyprus problem. He also said that the next round of talks on Cyprus aimed to make real progress toward a solution, while noting that previous talks had failed to do this.

[03] Foreign Exchange Rates-Tuesday

Following are indicative foreign exchange rates released by the central bank for the next working day.

Tuesdays rates (buying)

Euro 334.076

U.S. dollar 352.011

German mark 170.811

[04] Weather Forecast-Tuesday

Hot, sunny weather is forecast throughout the country on Tuesday. Winds northerly, light to moderate, turning strong in the southeast Aegean.

[05] Maillis Group-Italian acquisition

Maillis Group on Monday announced the purchase of a majority equity stake in Sicme SRL, an Italian manufacturer of engine spare parts, through Siat Spa, a company wholly owned by the Greek group.

The acquisition will further strengthen the group's vertical structure offering significant advantages in the production costs.

Maillis expects this year's turnover to rise to 77 billion drachmas, up 128 percent from 1999, and pre-tax profits to total 10.3 billion drachmas.

[06] ASE-close

Equity prices ended lower on Monday with turnover falling to its lowest levels this year on the Athens Stock Exchange.

Dealers said the market resisted renewed efforts to push the general index below the 4,000 support level. Smaller capitalisation stocks suffered the heaviest losses.

The general index ended at 4,020.29 points, off 0.84 percent with turnover at 62 billion drachmas. The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended 0.60 percent lower at 2,222.14 points and the FTSE/ASE 40 index dropped 1.15 percent to 573.54 points.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended at 734.84 points, off 2.28 percent.

[07] Greece-tourist arrivals

Charter flight tourist arrivals totalled 685,671 in May from 717,553 the same month last year, for a decline of 4.4 percent, National Statistics Service said on Monday.

The NSS said that overnight stays also fell by 2.95 percent to 1,865,418 in May from 1,922,145 the corresponding month in 1999.

Figures were based on tourist arrivals in Greece's main airports (Hellinikon Athens, Corfu, Heraclio Crete and Thessaloniki) which account for 60 percent of tourist traffic in the country.

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