GREECE: Greece's youngest prime minister had a dream start yesterday to the conservative revolution that swept socialists from power with the Athens stock market rising to a two-year high and warm words from traditional rival Turkey.
The day after the election all roads led to Athens as Turkish, Olympic and Cypriot leaders swiftly lined up for visits to meet New Democracy leader Mr Costas Karamanlis.
Mr Karamanlis, 48 this year, interviewed candidates for a cabinet he will announce today. His key decisions are who will fill the posts of finance, foreign affairs, defence, Olympics and public order.
Greek newspapers said a victory that ended 11 years of socialist rule was a vote for change and punishment for the socialists' failure to take advantage of EU membership and money to deliver better living standards.
Greek stocks hit a two-year high as investors saw the five percentage point size of the election win - nearly double what even the conservatives had expected - as a strong mandate for economic reforms and assurance of stable government.
"This guarantees a stable government for the next four years," said analyst Elias Lazaris at Artion Securities.
The perception of the conservatives as more business-friendly than socialists and plans to speed up privatisation and deregulation also boosted shares by more than 2 per cent.
Mr Karamanlis, a US-educated lawyer, takes power five months before the Athens Olympics and in a month when key decisions loom on relations with Turkey linked to Cyprus peace talks.
International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said he would travel to Athens, possibly this Saturday, to meet Mr Karamanlis about troubled games preparations.
The Turkish Prime Minister, Mr Tayyip Erdogan, held out a welcoming hand to Mr Karamanlis, who visited Turkey ahead of the election.
"Turkey had positive relations with Greece before the elections, whether it was with the ruling party or the opposition. I don't believe there will be any kind of negative effect after the election," Mr Erdogan said.
He added there would be no change to his plan to visit Athens this month.
Top of an agenda for talks between the leaders will be kick-starting stalled peace talks between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots on the future of their divided island.
UN mediators are trying to seal agreement on a complex power-sharing blueprint.
Newspapers speculated that Mr Karamanlis would appoint career diplomat Mr Petros Moliviatis to the foreign ministry and Mr George Alogoskoufis to the ministry of finance. Mr Dimitris Avramopoulos, a former mayor of Athens, was tipped to be culture minister, a portfolio responsible for overseeing Olympic preparations.