Athens News Agency: News in English, 03-05-06

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

CONTENTS

[01] Weather Forecast: Warm, sunny on Tuesday

[02] Foreign Exchange Rates - Tuesday

[03] Greek PM: common understanding among the ''25'' required on common

[01] Weather Forecast: Warm, sunny on Tuesday

Warm, sunny weather is forecast in all parts of the country, with scattered cloud on the mainland from late afternoon. Winds northeasterly, light to strong. In the west, temperatures will range from 14C to 31C; on the rest of the mainland from 13C to 29C; and in the Aegean islands from 16C to 27C. Temperatures in Athens between 17C and 27C; and in Thessaloniki from 16C to 28C.

[02] Foreign Exchange Rates - Tuesday

Reference buying rates per euro released by the European Central Bank

U.S. dollar 1.130

Pound sterling 0.705

Danish kroner 7.485

Swedish kroner 9.156

Japanese yen 134.5

Swiss franc 1.525

Norwegian kroner 7.928

Cyprus pound 0.592

Canadian dollar 1.605

Australian dollar 1.788

[03] Greek PM: common understanding among the ''25'' required on common defence policy

Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, speaking in Athens on Monday to European Affairs Committees of European Union and candidate-state national Parliaments (COSAC), said that the EU '25' needed to come to a ''common understanding'' regarding common foreign and defence policy for Europe (CFDP).

Addressing the 29th COSAC Conference, Simitis, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, referred to the

''mini-summit'' held on April 29 by France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg in an initiative to discuss the issue of common defence policy in the Union, and stressed the need for reinforced cooperation among the ''25'', ''always with common understanding''.

Simitis said he had consultations with the leaders of the four nations regarding their CFDP initiative so that the issue may be brought up for discussion at EU bodies and at the Constitutional Convention.

He said the informal EU summit in mid-April in Athens had agreed that EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana would put together a proposal on the issue to be tabled at the Thessaloniki Summit in June.

The prime minister also referred to Cyprus' EU accession, and he blamed what he called the intransigence exhibited by the Turkish-Cypriot leadership and Ankara's vacillation for preventing a solution to the island's political problem. He also stressed that ''there is still time'' for a solution to be achieved before 1 May 2004, when Cyprus will become a full member of the Union.

Simitis said that the position of the Turkish-Cypriot community ''became apparent in recent days when tens of thousands of Turkish-Cypriots crossed the dividing 'green line' to show, along with the Greek-Cypriots who also crossed on the other side, that their coexistence was entirely compatible''.

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