Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-07-04

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

CONTENTS

[01] Greece and Russia's Rosoboronexport sign amended contract for TOR-M1 missiles

[02] Interior ministry circular increases public-sector transactions processed by KEP centres

[03] Dates for PM Karamanlisâ visit to Ankara to be set later

[04] Athens tops list of European cities using "clean buses"

[01] Greece and Russia's Rosoboronexport sign amended contract for TOR-M1 missiles

The Greek state and Rosoboronexport, a Russian state exporter of defence equipment, on Monday signed an amended contract for offset benefits linked to the Russian-made TOR-M1 missiles and for linking the anti-aircraft missile system with the overall air defence system of the country.

Present at the signing of the amended contract were Defence Minister Spilios Spiliotopoulos, the general secretary of Economic Planning and Defence Investments General Secretariat and the Russian Ambassador to Athens.

An announcement put out by the defence ministry stressed that the present "contractual structure bears absolutely no relation to the contractual weaknesses of the initial contract, which resulted in matters remaining outstanding long term and in developments harmful for Greek interests."

It also notes that the amended agreement was necessary to settle the outstanding problems and was achieved after dogged negotiations, stressing that the Greek side retained all rights under the amended agreement and would also receive bank guarantees to ensure the Russian company fulfilled its own end of the deal.

According to earlier reports, Rosoboronexport will submit a letter of guarantee from the Russian Vnesheconombank bank worth 4.68 million dollars. It has also undertaken to complete the linking of the TOR-M1s with the country's Unified Air Defence System and make the system compatible with the S-300 PMU-1 system over a period of six mohths.

Components and spare parts for this project, which have arrived at Athens airport months ago, will be received by the Greek side after the final signing of the main agreement's new amendments.

The credit value of offset benefits will increase from 857 million dollars to 1.33 billion dollars.

[02] Interior ministry circular increases public-sector transactions processed by KEP centres

A circular issued by the interior ministry on Monday cleared up previous ambiguities concerning the number and type of public-sector transactions that can be carried out by Citizens Service Centres (KEP) and alerted ministries, regional authorities and KEP centres to changes in the law.

In addition, it abolishes the need for redundant documents certifying that a signature is genuine when the party appears in person to carry out transactions and, for the first time ever, it gives public sector services the right to certify as genuine copies of private documents or documents issued by foreign authorities. This right also extends to copies made from other copies of original documents, provided the latter have been certified as genuine by either a lawyer or a foreign issuing authority.

The ministry also notes that all public services are obliged to carry out the above transactions and that they can all be carried out at all KEP centres.

The circular notes that an amendment passed with bill 3345/2005 adds the phrase "or KEP centres" to the previous bill of 1999 has cleared up previous ambiguities, which had led certain public sector services to refuse to accept documents certifying the genuineness of signatures issued by KEP centres. Effectively, this confirms that KEP centres are empowered to carry out all the above transactions, greatly reducing inconvenience for the public and the time needed to issue state documents.

Finally, it instructs ministries and regional authorities to notify all public sector bodies of the circular, including all levels of local government.

[03] Dates for PM Karamanlisâ visit to Ankara to be set later

Prime minister Costas Karamanlis will visit Ankara at a date that would be announced later, government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos said Monday.

Repyling to questions during a regular press briefing, Roussopoulos also ssaid that ?nothing new arose? on the Cyprus issue during Karamanlisâ discussion with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday in Evros, where the two prime inaugurated construction of the Greek-Turkish natural gas pipeline.

[04] Athens tops list of European cities using "clean buses"

OASA, the Athens Bus Transport Organisation, on Monday received 121 new so-called "clean buses" using natural gas as fuel, raising the total number of this category of buses to 416 currently in use in Athens, ranking the Greek capital to the top of European cities using natural gas buses.

Transport and Communications Minister Mihalis Liapis, attending the delivery ceremony, announced a plan to supply OASA with 520 new buses using low-emission technology Euro 3 and 4, raising its fleet to 2,600 new buses. The ministry also plans upgrading the organisation's infrastructure, with the building of new depo stations around Attica.

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