51.   Milosevic would not have initialled the accord without the promised suspension of economic sanctions against Serbia, said western diplomats who have closely followed the talks.

52.   Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will initial an accord on the West Bank town of Hebron Wednesday, Israeli television said Tuesday night.

53.   Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday said they had settled a dispute over control of the Black Sea Fleet and initialled an accord on a bilateral friendship and cooperation treaty.

54.   Since the accord was initialled in November there have been howls of protest from the Bosnian Serbs over the solution found to Sarajevo during the lengthy Dayton talks.

55.   The accords were initialled in Dayton, Ohio, last month by the presidents of Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia and Serbia.

56.   The EU has finalised such agreements with Israel, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority and Tunisia and initialled the accords involving Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.

57.   The EU-Lebanon association accord will be initialed in the presence of European Commission President Romano Prodi and Hariri.

58.   The Hebron accord was initialed just hours earlier after a late-night meeting between Arafat and Netanyahu.

59.   The Israeli-PLO accord was initialled at Taba, Egypt, on Sunday after marathon negotiations.

60.   The Niger government and an umbrella organisation representing Tuareg rebels on Saturday initialled an accord ending three years of fighting in the west African country.