troubled by the information regarding terrorist attacks on Western capitals and in Africa, he noted that "we are constantly taking the measures we should, regardless of what is happening at any specific moment".

The opening of the works will take place at 09:30 on Friday, while the main speaker at the conference will be the Director of the Boston MIT Media Lab, Michael Bletsas, who will present the latest developments and technological discoveries regarding the Media.

Presentations on the utilization of these new technologies by the written press and electronic media will be expounded on at the conference, by senior officials in newspapers, radio and television stations, news agencies, as well as other new media funct ioning on the Internet, from Turkey, Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Romania, FYROM, Slovenia, Moldavia, and Serbia-Montenegro. Also, the role of media in the consolidation of an atmosphere of peace and security and the battle against terrorism, wi ll also be referred to by institute representatives from Cossovo, FYROM, Bosnia, Albania, and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

The conference will continue and be completed on Saturday afternoon, while immediately following it, the annual General Assembly of the Association of Balkan News Agencies (ABNA) will be held in the same venue.

The 8th Interbalkan Journalistic Conference of the MPA will be opened by the Minister of Macedonia-Thrace Charis Kastanidis, and there will be greeting addresses by deputy Foreign Minister Giannis Magriotis, Secretary General of the Press Ministry Dimitr a Spiliotopoulou, Thessaloniki Prefect Panagiotis Psomiadis, Thessaloniki Mayor Vassilis Papageorgopoulos, the spokesperson of ABNA and President of the ESIEMTH Dimitris Gousidis.

Drawing on the celebration of the memory of Agios Serafim, who was impaled by the Turks, just as the hero of the Greek Revolution Athanasios Diakos, by the people who want to join the EU today.

"That is why we are resisting", he underlined characteristically, while he also spoke of "barbarians" who cannot join the "Christian family of Europe".

Speaking to Flash Radio, Mr. Protopapas supported that it is clear where these scenarios originated from and what purposes they serve, stressing that the Prime Minister "has cleared all doubt for anyone of good faith", stressing that he would not refer t o the issue again, seeing as it is given that he will remain in the leadership of the party.

"We will not follow and will not harmonize our policies with the steps New Democracy wants to take", said the Government Spokesperson, adding: "We will submit our political initiative and they will be constant, we will form the terms of the counterattack , in order to win the elections with the vote and trust of the Greek people. Scenarios have no place here any more and we have no reason to keep answering to them".

Of the stocks trading today, 118 recorded losses and 178 had gains, while the value of 86 stocks remained unchanged.

Mr. Protopapas stated that everybody has the right to express their own opinions and added that Turkey's European course serves Greece's national interests, security in the region and economic development.

The agreement includes 18 points concerning, among others, the training of about 900 members of the FYROM Special Forces Brigade in Greek military schools and facilities.

Special reference was made to the FYROM efforts for accession into the Euro-Atlantic structures and Mr. Lotidis pointed out that the Greek government is going to undertake an initiative at the NATO Summit meeting in Istanbul in June 2004 aimed at acceler ating the procedures for FYROM's accession into NATO.

The Greek Deputy Minister of Defense also raised the issue of border guarding in view of the security measures on the occasion of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.