Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-11-25

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

CONTENTS

[01] Greece-France-Chirac-Simitis

[01] Greece-France-Chirac-Simitis

Prime Minister Costas Simitis said in Athens late Friday night that the European Union presidency will havecontacts until the Nice summit in December with all sides in order to find a commonly acceptable solution on the issue of Turkey's partnership agreement with the Union, adding that Greece would stick to its positions.

Simitis was addressing a press conference after talks with visiting French President Jacques Chirac. The French president, who currently assumes the 15-nation bloc's presidency, was on a brief visit to Athens on a tour of European capitals in preparation of the Nice summit.

On his part, Chirac said that there was "an interest for peaceful solutions and not for solutions of confrontation. I hope that this evidence will prevail in everybody's spirit."

The talks also focused on the inter-governmental conference and the "mad cow" disease issue.

"We agreed that there should be an arrangement which will give absolute priority to the consumer's safety," Simitis said, while Chirac underlined that fodder from animal substances should be prohibited and replaced by natural feed.

The French president also said that his talks with the Greek prime minister were "extremely cordial" and underlined that the two countries shared a common desire to see Europe progressing and the Nice summit ending successfully.

Chirac is due to depart early Saturday morning for Kosovo.

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