31.   Responding to earlier remarks from Tokyo that bilateral trade issues should be worked out in international forums, Shapiro stressed the need for bilateral talks.

32.   The English-language Iran Daily, however, called for closer cooperation between Cairo and Tehran and seemed to endorse the earlier remarks attributed to Mubarak.

33.   His earlier remarks triggered protests here, with South Korean ruling and opposition parties urging the Japanese government to apologize.

34.   A Japanese electronics industry leader back-pedalled Friday from earlier remarks that he expected a government role in a planned new private-sector arrengement with the US chip industry.

35.   Also in the interview, Tietmeyer echoed his earlier remarks that European monetary union had constitutional implications.

36.   Earlier remarks by US President George W. Bush, interpreted as a tacit acceptance of dollar weakness, added a further weight to the currency.

37.   The Turkish foreign ministry Monday ruled out the possibility of defence industry cooperation with Iran overturning earlier remarks by Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan.

38.   Kubo was responding to questions about earlier remarks made by Hashimoto that Japan could not base its monetary policy on assumptions of higher US interest rates.

39.   Mesnel was responding to earlier remarks by federation president Bernard Lapasset that the sport would not go fully professional in France.

40.   Ranatunga added more fuel to the fire by repeating his earlier remarks that Australian spinner Shane Warne was highly overrated.