41.   U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer announced the handover during a break in the annual ministerial level talks between the two countries.

42.   Financial sources here said the session would be informal and that no further meetings at ministerial level were currently being contemplated.

43.   France has responded to a forum request by sending, for the first time, a repesentative at ministerial level.

44.   French President Jacques Chirac called last week for the revival of stalled diplomatic efforts, in particular with a meeting of the contact group at ministerial level.

45.   He said monthly meetings at expert and ministerial level would take place in Cairo and Tel-Aviv to finalise technical issues before next June.

46.   He said the composition of the delegation would be discussed Friday and that it would at ministerial level.

47.   However Kozyrev said late Monday as he arrived in Berlin that the contact group should meet again at the ministerial level to discuss its approach to Serbia.

48.   If Syria decides to restart the talks at the foreign ministerial level, then Levy will head the Israeli delegation.

49.   In a statement, delegates decided to reinforce the legal basis for a regional economic group and to organise regular meetings at ministerial level.

50.   In Tokyo US and Japanese officials opened two days of informal talks Monday on the semicondutor accord ahead of negotiations at deputy ministerial level in Washington Thursday and Friday.