in the proceedings, and 1,017,085 voted for G. Papandreou for President, while there were 3060 blank or null votes. The leadership of the party will be turned over to G. Papandreou from C. Simitis during a ceremony at the party's offices in Athens this a fternoon.

Both men greeted the initiative of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for the recommencing of negotiations and Mr. Simitis stressed that it is up to Ankara and the Denktash regime to prove that they wish to resolve the Cyprus issue in the framework of the A nnan proposal with their actions.

President of ND Costas Karamanlis also met with President Papadopoulos today, in view of what he called, the new momentum developing around the Cyprus issue and its upcoming full accession to the EU.

It is a basic national goal, stressed Mr. Karamanlis, to find a just, viable and functional solution according to the resolutions and decisions of the UN and European acquis.

The Greek Cypriot side, underlined the President of ND, has repeatedly shown its good will and now the other side is obliged to leave behind its refusal and delaying tactics and to come to the table of negotiations based on the Annan proposal.

We are, he underlined, at the side of Cypriot Hellenism, in its struggle, while he noted that on national issues it is necessary to draw a united national strategy, and that is why ND insisted on the need of forming a National Council for Foreign Policy and the convening of the Council of Political Leaders under the President of the Republic.

Meanwhile, Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Papandreou repeated the necessity of a solution to the Cyprus issue, in a speech yesterday at the exhibition of the Pieridis Foundation on "3200 years of Cypriot Hellenism - From Astarti to Aphrodite". He stresse d that the interest of the international community must be utilized and that negotiation procedures for the resolving of the Cyprus issue must begin based on the Annan proposal.

At the same time, Turkish Cypriot Leader Rauf Denktash arrived in New York late yesterday afternoon (local time), after the invitation he also received from Mr. Annan, for the recommencing of the negotiations.

At the same time he expressed his disagreement with ND's program on securities and committed himself to a continuous and essential dialogue with social partners in order to find solutions for their problems.

Mr. Papandreou selected the GSEE for his first formal visit as President of PASOK for symbolic and essential reasons, and noted: "For myself, dialogue is an essential ingredient in any policy in the participial democracy we are forming. We have many thin gs that we can do together and much to achieve through our close cooperation".

Mr. Papandreou discussed the issues concerning employees and pensioners with the President of the GSEE, specifically issues such as securities, labor quality and unemployment.

His appreciation that Giorgos Papandreou understands the position of the GSEE was expressed by Christos Polyzogopoulos, who stressed that he greatly appreciates that Mr. Papandreou's visit after his election to PASOK's Presidency was to the GSEE. "He lis tened to us carefully and with sensitivity, and gave the first answers that show that he understands our position, and wants, through the continuation of this cooperation, to deal with as many of the problems the Greek workforce is facing as possible", sa id Mr. Polyzogopoulos.

Prime Minister of Spain Jose Maria Asnar will preside over the conference's works, while leaders from more than 90 political parties from around the world, the members of the International Center Democrat association, will participate.

Among them are the Prime Ministers of Portugal, Norway, Slovakia, Malta, Esthonia, Presidents of the Republic and other political leaders.

Also, Athens will host the works of the Presidency of the European Peoples' Party on February 18-19 2004. Participants in the Presidency's works include President of the EPP Wilfred Martens, Vice President of the EPP and President of New Democracy Costas

Karamanlis, Vice President of the European Commission Mrs. Loyola de Palacio, and others.

"It is with great emotion that receive this responsibility, a responsibility which is even greater after the immense participation of citizens, countrymen, outside PASOK, in this unprecedented electoral procedure, which showed the demand for participatio n, the demand for citizens to have a voice", said Mr. Papandreou, shaking Mr. Simitis' hand, and added: "It is an order to continue this effort, to break authoritative relations and change our movement, and as government in the near future, to form a new relationship with the citizens, with their problems. We can do these things drawing on the work you have done, our President, all these years. It gives us strength, and your continual presence, which we expect in the next phase of our work, will give us e ven more strength."

Mr. Papandreou and Mr. Simitis greeted all the members of the Executive Office and made statements in a very emotional atmosphere.

Mr. Simitis congratulated Mr. Papandreou and underlined: "Yesterday we experienced an unprecedented political event. The citizens applauded PASOK's proposal to participate in the election of the leader of a party seeking a governmental order. Reassurance

was given that citizens want open procedures, away from mechanism conflict, they want transparent procedures. Mr. Papandreou is the third PASOK President in almost 30 years since its foundation. In those thirty years, Greece has changed dramatically. We are now entering a new era. In the Greece of participation and convergence. We must open new paths, with development, justice for all Greeks and especially for the new generation and those most in need".

Mr. Papandreou took over the post replacing Kostas Simitis who congratulated him stressing that participation in yesterday's vote giving to Mr. Papandreou a popular mandate was unprecedented. He said that the people approved unanimously PASOK's proposal to participate in the election of a party leader who will claim a government mandate.

The new PASOK leader stated that he is fully aware of his responsibilities and thanked Mr. Simitis on behalf of PASOK and the Greek people for everything he has done and offered in order to be more proud for Greece and more optimistic about the future.

Of the stocks trading today, 52 had gains and 258 had losses, while the value of 74 stocks remained unchanged.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar will preside over the meeting that will be held with the participation of over 90 political party leaders from all over the world forming the Central Democrats International.

Among them will be the Prime Ministers of Portugal, Norway, Slovakia, Malta, Estonia, as well as, state Presidents and other political leaders.

This summit will be in continuation of the Central Democrats International meeting that was held in the Ionian Sea island of Corfu in 2002. Among the issues under discussion will be international affairs and issues of cooperation concerning the political

parties, which are members of the Central Democrats International.

Meanwhile, New Democracy will host in Athens on February 18-19 the European People's Party presiding board meeting on the occasion of the preparations in view of the forthcoming European Parliament elections and the developments concerning the future of Europe.

The statement mentions that the tragic fate of the Greek Jews, who fell victims of the genocide committed by the German Nazis during WWII, is certainly known. It is stressed that a total of 29 Jewish communities existed in Greece numbering about 80,000 p eople until 1943.

The Jewish Community of Thessaloniki expresses its deepest thanks to the government, the opposition and all the political parties represented in the Greek Parliament for the adoption of the Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day commemorating the sacrifice of the

50,000 Jews from Thessaloniki and the 6 million Jews from all over Europe.

In a press conference at the European Parliament offices in Athens today it was stressed that international problems are a threat to the environment and their solution demands cooperation and understanding by all nations.

The Turkish University professors, mayors and governors participating in the press conference referred to the common environmental problems faced by the two countries and stressed that they seek closer bilateral cooperation in order to deal with them, wh ile they also referred to Turkey's European prospect.

The President of Democratic Rebirth will be a candidate in Thessaloniki in the ballot of New Democracy, while two or three more Democratic Rebirth members will also be included in New Democracy ballots.

The opinion poll was held on February 6 and 7 after the governing Socialist Party of PASOK convention and before the vote for the election of the party's new President on Sunday.

According to the opinion poll, right-wing main opposition party of New Democracy is most likely to win in the March 7 elections according to 44.6% of those who responded to the questions compared to PASOK, which is regarded as most likely winner by 31.4%

of the people who responded to the opinion poll questions. The distance between the two parties has been reduced to 13.2% compared to an earlier opinion poll when it was at 19.5%.

It took him a year to complete the project, which was commissioned by the publishers. The book will come out later this year, along with the Irish Gaelic version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Mr. Wilson also said that the official line is that it can be used in schools to encourage people to learn Greek. He added that "having got kids reading English, J.K. Rowling is quite keen to have them reading Latin and Greek".

He also said that his model for Harry Potter has been Lucian, a writer from the 3rd century AD, and stressed that writing the book had its challenges, as he had to use descriptions of the characters and the unique vocabulary used in the book in his trans lation.

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