51.   His visit comes a month after a similar tour by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat urging Europeans to put pressure on Israel to fulfill the Middle East peace accords.

52.   His visit comes a month after the failure of U.N.-sponsored talks between Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash in Switzerland.

53.   His visit comes amid growing cooperation between the former rivals following mutual visits last year by Russian President Boris Yeltsin to Beijing and Chinese Premier Li Peng to Moscow.

54.   His visit comes as U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright plans to go to Europe to confer with the British, French and Russian foreign ministers about Iraq.

55.   His visit comes only three months before Israeli elections, and it appears unlikely that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will adopt major policy changes at such a time.

56.   His visit comes seven months before the first summit between India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN.

57.   His visit comes three weeks after an Irish soldier was killed and another wounded in SLA shelling near Braachit.

58.   His visit comes weeks after a delegation from the rival Kurdish Democratic Party held similar talks with Egyptian officials.

59.   His visit came ahead of one by Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes to Russia starting next Wednesday.

60.   His visit came amid a summer journey he makes every year to former communist eastern Germany.