"As we announced, yesterday the implementation of the humanitarian measure for the issuing of permits for visits to Greece by political refugees in FYROM began, and everything is going smoothly, no problems having arisen.

The permit applies to political refugees who were excluded by the 1982 Law "on return of political refugees", and is good for twenty days between August 10 and October 30.

Already, on June 30, 2003, following the relevant directive from Foreign Minister Giorgos Papandreou, I presided over a meeting at which the final decisions were taken regarding the practical implementation of the humanitarian measure, with care not to u ndermine the Greek position on the only outstanding problem in Greek-FYROM relations - that of the name issue.

The only thing asked of potential visitors to Greece, political refugees, residents and citizens of FYROM, was that they use the new travelling papers of their state, that is, the new series of FYROM passports, and, naturally, that they have the necessar y entrance visa.

According to the information we have received from the Nikis Border Station, up until this morning ten persons had crossed the border, making use of the above-mentioned measure. They are, for the most part, elderly persons travelling alone. At the Evzo ne Border Station, up until this morning no one had passed making use to the measure.

Entrance was denied at the Nikis Station to only one coach, the passengers of which did not have the proper entrance visas for our country.

We believe that the entrance of visiting political refugees will continue uninterrupted. After the successful completion of the measure, the possible future re-implementation of the measure will be considered, as we agreed with Foreign Minister Papandre ou and Deputy Minister of Sports and MP from Florina Giorgos Lianis.

As is obvious, the criticism leveled at our decision to implement this humanitarian measure, based as it was on the prejudice and divisive messages of the civil war, is once again without object, and those who promoted it are exposed before the eyes of t he Greek people".

Two forest fires also caused by lightning in the regions of Evia and Thesprotia were put out by the heavy rain that followed. The fire in Evia had threatened residential areas.

The Civil Protection General Secretariat has warned that there is high risk for fires in Attiki, Evia, the islands of Ikaria and Samos and in the region of Lasithi in the island of Crete.

Based on the available data, the number of fires recorded in Greece in 2003 is notably lower compared to past years, a fact attributed both to the weather conditions and to the improvement recorded in the fire prevention and fire fighting methods.

Of the stocks trading today, 88 recorded gains and 240 had losses, while the value of 53 stocks remained unchanged.

Mr. Venizelos made the statement on the occasion of a letter by British Museum Director Neil MacGregor published on "The Sunday Times" yesterday.

The Greek Culture Minister also stated that he is not raising a legal issue over the ownership of the Parthenon Marbles hoping that an amicable settlement will be reached.