51.   In order to join the wealthy western bloc the largely poorer former communist bloc countries have to make painful economic reforms, overhauling their cranking once centrally planned economies.

52.   And Cuban and Latin American diplomats here have mostly written off suggestions of that a new communist bloc is in the making.

53.   But the collapse of the Communist bloc has allowed increased cooperation.

54.   China has great influence over North Korea as a neighbour and ally in the dimishing communist bloc and a major aid-giver.

55.   East European former communist bloc countries were also keen to join the stampede.

56.   The programme aims to bolster cooperation between the former Communist bloc states of eastern and central Europe with the Atlantic alliance.

57.   The spokesman said Poland, the Czech Republic and Russia were among the main candidates for its first television plant in the former communist bloc.

58.   There is much satisfaction that alone of the communist bloc states to date, the Czech Republic is in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

59.   Troops of the old communist bloc geared this week to go into action for the first time on US soil.

60.   With concerted anti-smoking campaigns underway in the United States and Europe, the former communist bloc has become fertile ground for western tobacco companies.