Athens News Agency: News in English, 06-07-26

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

CONTENTS

[01] Papandreou in Lebanon for SI mission

[02] Greek farm exports up 28.4 pct in 1st quarter

[01] Papandreou in Lebanon for SI mission

He started off contacts in Beirut by meeting with Lebanese Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who briefed Papandreou on the situation since the start of Israeli attacks in southern parts of the country. On his part, Papandreou briefed Berri on his meeting with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan in Rome on Tuesday.

He also outlined their joint position, calling for an immediate response to the problems on the level of the humanitarian crisis, an immediate ceasefire without terms and conditions and for the two sides to agree on a code of behaviour that would make a truce feasible.

If all the above were carried out, the next phase would require a peacekeeping forces mission with the agreement of the two sides (Lebanon and Israel), while the agreement would also have to be accepted by Hezbollah, Papandreou said.

Papandreou next visited refugee camps in the centre of Beirut and then the city's largest hospital, where he toured the ward for children injured in the hostilities.

Also in Beirut since Tuesday are two MPs sent by Greece's Coalition of the Left, Movements and Ecology party, Athanassios Leventis and Panos Trigazis and an MP of the Cypriot AKEL party, who formed part of the delegation sent to Lebanon by the European Left.

Late on Tuesday night they met the head of the Delegation of the European Commission in Lebanon, Patrick Renauld, and on Wednesday they contacted parliamentary representatives of the Hezbollah militants.

In their statements, they stressed the need for an immediate ceasefire and for the deployment of forces in southern Lebanon to monitor the truce, which they stressed should operate under the auspices of the United Nations and not NATO.

Meanwhile, the latest Greek politician to arrive in Lebanon on Wednesday afternoon was Communist Party of Greece (KKE) General Secretary Aleka Papariga, who is to have a series of contacts in order to be briefed on the situation in Lebanon and express her party's solidarity toward the suffering Lebanese people.

[02] Greek farm exports up 28.4 pct in 1st quarter

Speaking to reporters, after a meeting with Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, Basiakos said he briefed the prime minister over ministry policies and underlined that Greek farm exports grew by 24 percent in 2005 and by 28.4 pct in the first quarter of 2006.

The Greek minister said the government was methodically implementing its programme and noted that efforts were made to promote bio-farming and to protecting the environment for more quality products and for the health of citizens.

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