1.   This voting bloc has become the backbone of the Likud.

2.   With countries fresh from four decades of communism set to join in coming years, the bloc would become unmanageable without reform.

3.   The hawkish National Union bloc has become the first party to quit.

4.   Van den Broek carefully avoided mentioning when the east bloc would become part of the Union, but said there is no doubt that will happen.

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