The 600kg spacecraft was lofted into orbit on a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, at 11:19 (05:19GMT).

Giove-A will demonstrate key technologies needed for Galileo, the 3.4 billion euros (2.3 billion pounds; $4 billion) satellite-navigation system Europe hopes to deploy by 2010.

The new network will give EU states guaranteed access to a space-borne precise timing and location service independent of the United States.

The perfect launch was a moment of celebration for the small British company, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), which had been given the prestigious task of building the demonstrator.

SSTL staff had gathered at their Guildford base to watch the lift-off on a TV link from Baikonur. The company put the spacecraft together in less than three years, a remarkably short timeframe for what is essentially an experimental platform. "Three years ago I did a sketch of what I thought we could do. To go from that sketch to what we have now is amazing," recalled John Paffett, projects director with SSTL. "It's not over yet - there's a lot of hard work to go ahead - but it's definitely a monumental occasion," he told the BBC News website.

Professor Martin Sweeting, the CEO of SSTL, added: "This is going to be Europe's largest space project. As a relatively small company - we're an SME of 200 people, specialising in small and rapid-response spacecraft - to take the vanguard of such a large programme is quite an experience."

Giove-A will check out the in-orbit performance of two atomic clocks - critical to any sat-nav system - and a number of other components that will be incorporated into the 30 satellites of the fully fledged Galileo constellation.

These spacecraft - four of which have already been ordered - are expected all to be in orbit by the end of 2010. Giove-A also has the important job of securing the radio frequencies allocated to Galileo within the International Telecommunications Union.

To do this, a sat-nav signal of the correct structure must be received on Earth by June 2006. The SSTL team believes it can complete this task within the first couple of weeks of flight. Galileo is a joint venture between the European Union and the European Space Agency.

Once fully deployed, the new system should revolutionise the way we use precise timing and location signals delivered from space. "We are aiming to provide one-metre, worldwide accuracy through Galileo's 'open' service - this is not possible today without regional or local augmentation," said Esa's Galileo project manager, Javier Benedicto.

"With the use of three signals, we will have access to centimetre accuracies, and with these you will see many more services than you have today; and European industry is working to develop those applications."

In few years' time, a small Galileo chip will be integrated in mobile phones, giving users the ability to pinpoint restaurants, hotels, movie theatres, hospitals or car parks. Galileo will deliver the tools national governments need to introduce wide-scale road charging. The network will also underpin Europe's new air-traffic control system. The single European sky initiative will overhaul current technologies used to keep planes at safe separations, and allow pilots to fly their own routes and altitudes. SSTL hopes a successful mission for Giove-A will bring more orders for sat-nav and other spacecraft.

"This is very good for our development," explained Max Meerman, a principal engineer with the company. "It's the biggest satellite we've done so far, it's got big deployable tracking-arrays that we haven't done before, and it cost 28 million euros (19 million pounds; $33 million)."

The estimated population of the United States is 298,094,171, so each citizen's share of this debt is $27,453.15.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $2.83 billion per day since September 30, 2005!

It's official: as of October 18th, the National Debt has risen to over eight trillion dollars. Incidentally, it was back in December 2003, less than two years ago, that the Debt surpassed a "mere" seven trillion dollars.

A persistent drought has blanketed Texas since early summer, causing the worst fire threat in five years, Perry's office said in a written statement. The fires in the Lone Star State were mostly in the central, north-central and northeast regions.

One of the worst outbreaks was reported in Cross Plains, where a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety told CNN affiliate KTXS-TV that about two dozen homes or structures had been burned. Cross Plains is a town of about 1,000, located about 43 miles southeast of Abilene.

In Kennedale, a town of about 6,000 near Fort Worth, flames devoured outbuildings and a few homes and left heavy smoke hanging over neighborhoods. Kennedale Mayor Jim Norwood said Tuesday night that about 300 acres in the town had burned.

"Most of the people in the community here pulled together and kept it from getting into our neighborhoods," he said. "It has quieted down quite a bit." Some residents used garden hoses to help keep flames at bay and shovels to douse hot spots.

Perry's disaster declaration allowed him to activate the state emergency management plan, placing the Division of Emergency Management in charge. He said four helicopters from the National Guard - plus two single-engine air tankers and two helicopters from the US Forest Service - were being deployed in the firefighting effort.

Fires began in Texas on Sunday but spread rapidly Tuesday afternoon when winds picked up, said Traci Weaver of the Texas Forestry Service. "We have fires all over Texas," she told CNN Tuesday afternoon.

In Oklahoma, gusty winds prevented helicopters from flying and dropping water on the flames, said Michelann Ooten, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management. Ooten said Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters capable of pouring hundreds of gallons of water in one sweep would join firefighting efforts Wednesday if winds decrease.

Authorities said numerous structures had been destroyed. Major Brian Stanaland of the Oklahoma City Fire Department said at least three people were injured, including a child with burns on his hands. John Hargreave, mayor of the town of Wewoka, said a firefighter suffered from smoke inhalation.

Hargreave said the region has endured a 70-day drought, and winds up to 40 mph whipped the grassland wildfires out of control Tuesday. Stanaland said dry conditions have fueled sporadic fires for two months.

"It's a recipe for disaster," he said.

Hargreave estimated that 30 houses had burned on the outskirts of Wewoka, a town of 3,500 people about 70 miles southeast of Oklahoma City. "We have numerous fires virtually surrounding our town," he said. "We've had reports of numerous rural structures being burned. We've had one structure within the city limits burn."

Hargreave said "thousands and thousands" of acres of grassland around his town had burned, and residents had been prepared to evacuate before a change in the wind appeared to spare Wewoka Tuesday evening. "We've had to go 40 to 45 miles out to call for assistance, because fire departments in surrounding communities have their own fires," he said.

Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry said Tuesday evening he had activated the state's emergency operations center in Oklahoma City. Henry said his administration was trying to find out whether federal assistance was available.

In Mustang, a city of about 15,000 residents just west of Oklahoma City, flames tore through homes and cars, and many residents were seen fleeing.

The Polish government's decision to reduce its force reverses a previous plan to withdraw all Polish troops in early 2006. Poland, a staunch ally of the United States, has about 1,500 soldiers stationed in south-central Iraq. More than 17 have been killed in the war-torn country since the 2003 US-led invasion.

Recent opinion polls show the military presence in Iraq is unpopular at home, with a majority of Poles wanting the soldiers to return. Meanwhile, Ukraine and Bulgaria, who have their troops serving in Iraq under Polish command, announced that they completed the withdrawal of their soldiers.

The last Ukrainian troops left Iraq on Tuesday, the defense ministry said, according to BBC. Their pullout coincided with that of the remaining 130 Bulgarian soldiers. Ukraine initially opposed the invasion but later sent 1,650 soldiers to Iraq, becoming one of the largest non-NATO participants. About eighteen Ukrainian troops have been killed since the war began.

Bulgaria started withdrawing its forces shortly after Iraq's parliamentary elections, transferring its military responsibilities to Iraqi soldiers.

Correspondents say the withdrawals would deal a major blow to the US President George W Bush, who is facing mounting pressure at home and abroad over his handling of the war. Last week, the Pentagon announced that it will cut the current level of 160,000 troops in Iraq by two army brigades, which amounts to about 7,000 soldiers.

More than 2,100 American soldiers died in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion.

The 88-seat body was proposed by Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa as part of a package of reforms to make the 60-year-old institution stronger and more effective. In his speech, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak described the inaugural session as a historical occasion which opens new horizons for joint Arab action.

The parliament has four representatives from each of the 22 Arab League member states, but has no legislative powers and has provoked widespread criticism. Some Arab countries have sent deputies from un-elected bodies while others have excluded any opposition participation.

Palestinian parliament speaker Rawhi Fattouh said the parliament would only be valuable if it kept an eye on the actions of Arab governments. "It must be a monitor of Arab executive institutions, but if it is just a union of parliaments then it's not going to be important," he said at the meeting.

The Arab League hopes the current interim parliament will gain more powers and be replaced by a permanent elected assembly, to be based in Damascus, possibly through direct elections similar to those held for the European parliament. In the two-day meeting in Cairo, members are due to elect a speaker and other officers.

We have several regional parliaments - the European Parliament and the African Parliament. The Arab parliament will be looking at them and their experiences and what they can learn from them," Arab League spokesman Alaa Rushdi was quoted by Reuters as saying.

Speaking to KUNA at the end of the meetings, Al-Taweel said that the ministers taking part in the gatherings "underlined the importance of coordination among member states in order to remove any obstacle before the smooth transfer of goods and services across borders and physical barriers." He said that participants in the meeting discussed the bilateral relations between the GCC on the one hand and other regional and international economic blocs on the other. Participants also called for improving relations with other economic blocs.

Al-Taweel praised the efforts made by GCC members in streamlining their commercial and economic activities and recalled that GCC members were determined to achieve a GCC common market by 2007 and also to achieve unity of currency.

Turning to the other meeting of the Measurements Committee, Al-Taweel said that participants in that meeting discussed the latest developments regarding quality and measurement control.

Participants also agreed on streamlining GCC quality standards and called for matching world standards in product quality and quantity.

At the end of the 20th century, the United States ranked first internationally thanks to its dominance and strength at the economic, political, and cultural levels. However, things have soon altered, as the united Europe took the lead, thus building its own radiant, breathtaking entity.

China too has emerged at the international scene as a superpower followed by a steadily advancing India. By contrast, in the MENA - as some refer to our countries - the situation has relatively deteriorated, while the rapidly changing rules of the international game seem to confuse us. Even the hope of reshaping the region after the peace process has faded away due to constant conflicts, wars, and quest of the people for freedom and democracy.

All of a sudden, everything has changed mid-last year on. A once-falling dollar has regained its standing thanks to the US military and political pressures, while the Federal Reserve has kept on raising interest rates instead of reducing them. Many countries, instead of tempering down tensions, have also exerted pressures on China to force it to reconsider its currency's exchange rate. As for the alarming oil prices, instead of standing at $20-to-25 price range per barrel, they have doubled, thus hitting a $50 floor.

Early this year, the French have voted down the European Constitution. The German economy too has fallen into recession. Hence, Europe has seemed weak, tottering, and incapable of definitively settling any issue. The Chinese and the Indian balances of payments were also strained as a result of the mounting prices of oil, its derivatives, and the energy-intensive materials, like cement, iron, and other construction materials. The world has then focused on stabilizing prices - a trend that lasted for a long period of time. Meanwhile, the production costs have alarmingly soared at a pace even the enhanced productivity cannot keep up with. Hence, attention was directed to swift profits in the speculation in shares and real estates.

In short, the dollar is now on the rise, which enables the US economy to partly regain its international hegemony despite the successive upheavals that have shaken the Bush Junior administration. Hence, the "euro" has been falling against the dollar and the gold, thereby reflecting the anxiety gripping the European economy, even if a decline in the euro exchange rate may enhance to some extent the European exports. On the other hand, China and India still endeavor to flourish, each one alone.

Unfortunately, their growth may be stalled. For instance, the South East Asian countries (i.e. the ASEAN group) suffer at times from natural catastrophes, like tsunami, and at others from the outbreak of epidemics, like bird flu. However, they remain stable, even if they lose their international sparkle and their status as a promising economic bloc.

By contrast, the Arabs' position on the world economic map has not apparently changed. The Arab world is still at a standstill though it has outstripped the African countries, thus getting closer to the other groups ahead of it. Nonetheless, the chances of success are not the same in all the Arab countries.

For instance, the countries in North Africa show signs of economic progress, while the sustained growth has not been only limited to Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria, but has characterized countries, like Egypt, Libya, and even Mauritania. Therefore, the countries in North Africa including Egypt are increasingly emerging at the international scene.

As for the GCC countries, they are presented now, and as expected in the foreseeable future, with many opportunities to diversify their economies, buttress their international standing, develop their infrastructures, and join the world economy under suitable and plausible conditions. Had the Gulf countries averted some of the easily contained internal struggles, had they favored the mutual public interest to pride and showoff, they would have reaped more real long-term qualitative gains.

Furthermore, the condition of the Fertile Crescent countries is not the least satisfactory. Some states are even undergoing an ambiguous and complex transition period compelling them to take difficult decisions. Syria seems, for instance, trapped and is likely to remain embroiled in this critical situation, irrespective of its response, whether it bows to the international pressures or not. By contrast, the situation in Lebanon is expected to improve.

However, the question we all ask, though it cannot be easily answered, is the following: What will take place when the assassins of the late PM Rafik Hariri are tried? In Iraq, change has been awaited after the legislative elections. Nonetheless, Iraq's fate is still ambiguous, even as concerns its territorial unity and capacity to build its potentials. As for Palestine, and given the international circumstances, it has seen its dream of establishing a state vanish. Jordan, on the other hand, is still trying to preserve its stability despite the violent changes and disturbances at its borders and in the neighboring countries.

On the other hand, Sudan, like Yemen, has endeavored hard to initiate reconciliation and normalize its foreign relations. Yet, in Yemen, often do the domestic social and political conditions and arrangements pose many challenges. Besides, this country is sensitive to the dangerous developments in the Horn of Africa, especially between Eritrea and Ethiopia. In fact, the Arab world seemingly overlooks the countries of the Horn of Africa and the other states to the south of the Red Sea, like Somalia and Djibouti. Likewise, no one seems to care for the fate of the divided Comoros Islands.

If the current trends remain unreversed, the United States will certainly succeed, in the next five years, in re-dominating the world. The dollar will remain the main currency engine in the Arab countries, while the Europeans will try to find common grounds with the Arabs. Nonetheless, the Arab-European relations are bound to deteriorate at all levels in the light of the recent developments in France and the United Kingdom. Amid the prevailing European circumstances, the conservatives and the right-wing parties may even gain clout - a problem the United States has long overcome.

The next five years are expected to be the most complex for the Arab world at the political, economic, national, and regional levels. They may be even crucial in reshaping the Arab world, its map, and economic systems for many years to come.

The contention that this could unseat the dollar's dominance as the de facto currency for oil transactions may be overstated, but this has not stopped many commentators from linking America's current political disquiet with Iran to the proposed Iranian Oil Bourse (IOB).

The expected reduced call on crude for the refining of heating oil drove Nymex West Texas Intermediate for February delivery 48 cents lower to $57.72 a barrel in early electronic trade. While the International Petroleum Exchange in London remained closed on Tuesday, Brent crude was 54 cents lower in electronic trade at $56.15 a barrel.

The US National Weather Service said in a forecast that demand in the key north-east region was likely to be a quarter less than usual in the week to December 31, given the mild temperatures.

Meanwhile, recent supply tensions eased after Royal Dutch Shell said it had restored most of its production in Nigeria following an attack by gunmen on its Niger Delta pipeline, knocking out 180,000 barrel a day of production. By Monday Shell had all but 15,000 barrels per day back on line.

Walter Zimmerman, technical analyst at United Energy, said that low volumes this week were likely to mean that the market would continue to trade in the ranges seen for much of the past two months.

He said: When we look to the very narrow weekly range and the very low volume it seems more likely that more congestion is ahead.

Flooding is possible in the coastal regions of Northern California and southern Oregon as more heavy rain is expected to fall on already saturated ground and high water levels climb.

Potentially heavy snowfall amounts are also possible Tuesday morning in the Sierra Nevadas before precipitation turns to rain by the afternoon.

As this system pushes farther inland, potentially heavy snow and rain will fall in northern Nevada, Idaho, and into Montana and Wyoming by early Wednesday. Additional snowfall is expected through the Central Rockies.

A significant wind event is likely in eastern New Mexico and western Texas with west winds of 25 mph to 35 mph.

The warmest area of the country is expected to be Texas, with 70s and 80s. The Northern Rockies, Northern Plains, and northern New England will likely only rise into the 30s while the Ohio Valley will experience highs in the 40s and 50s.

Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Monday ranged from a low of minus 8 degrees at Gunnison, Colorado, to a high of 88 degrees at Laredo, Texas.

According to an article on Inter Press Service news agency, Philip Zelikow, who is now the executive director of the 9/11 investigation panel, said that one of the main reasons behind the 2003 US-led invasion was to protect Israeli interests in the region. Zelikow made his comments about "the unstated threat" during his tenure on a well-connected body known as the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB), which reports directly to the president. He served on the board between 2001 and 2003.

Zelikow's remarks contradict with the justifications provided by the Bush administration, which has never linked Iraq with Israel's security. Instead, President Bush has insisted that the war was to topple the Iraqi leader, liberate the Iraqis and destroy Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction (no such weapons were ever found in Iraq).

"Why would Iraq attack America or use nuclear weapons against us? I'll tell you what I think the real threat (is) and actually has been since 1990 - it's the threat against Israel," Zelikow told a crowd at the University of Virginia on September 10, 2002, speaking on behalf of a team of foreign policy experts evaluating the impact of 9/11 and the future of the US's war on terror.

"And this is the threat that dare not speak its name, because the Europeans don't care deeply about that threat, I will tell you frankly. And the American government doesn't want to lean too hard on it rhetorically, because it is not a popular sell," he added.

Even if Iraq really possessed weapons of mass destruction, Zelikow said, then the fear of them falling into the hands of the Palestinian resistance would have threatened Israel rather than the United States. "Play out those scenarios," he told his audience, "and I will tell you, people have thought about that, but they are just not talking very much about it."

Until now the possibility that Washington invaded Iraq to protect Israel has been rarely raised by some intellectuals and writers, with few public acknowledgements from sources close to the Bush administration. Zelikow's statements are the first to acknowledge that the war, which has so far claimed the lives of thousands of Iraqis, was launched by the US to eliminate a threat against Israel.

Political analysts who reviewed Zelikow's remarks said they are strong evidence of one factor in the rationale for going to war, which has been covered up. "Those of us speaking about it sort of routinely referred to the protection of Israel as a component," said Phyllis Bennis of the Washington-based Institute of Policy Studies. "But this is a very good piece of evidence of that."

Others blame the White House for not informing the public about its true motives for invading Iraq. "They (the administration) made a decision to invade Iraq, and then started to search for a policy to justify it. It was a decision in search of a policy and because of the odd way they went about it, people are trying to read something into it," said Nathan Brown, professor of political science at George Washington University and an expert on the Middle East.

The Bush administration, which is surrounded by pro-Israel, neo-conservative hawks, is now trying to defend itself against accusations that it derailed the "war on terror it launched after 9/11 by hitting Iraq, which didn't pose any direct threats to the Americans.

In fact, the war was pushed forcefully by the neo-conservatives in the Bush Administration. A number of senior figures from Bush administrations' neo-con wing wrote an advisory paper for the Netanyahu government in 1996 entitled "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm".

This paper listed ousting Saddam as an important Israeli strategic objective. It defies logic to believe that the same people, in their push toward Iraq war, didn't think about Israel's security. Writers involved in the "Clean Break" paper included Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, David and Meyrav Wurmser and James Colbert. All of them were supporters for the war.

Moreover, Israel's support for the invasion was never hidden. Both the Sharon government and a majority of the Israelis backed the war. A Guardian report on how the US intelligence community provided "evidence" to support the invasion described how Americans working outside the CIA worked with Israelis operating outside of the Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, to help produce that "evidence."

Reports before the war indicated that Israel was playing a key role in preparing for the invasion while others indicate that Israeli agents have been working among Iraqi Kurds.

A total of 12,990 mines were ordered to suspend operations for safety inspections, and 2,411 of them were told to shut permanently, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

China's coal mines are the world's deadliest, with more than 5,000 deaths reported every year in fires and other disasters despite repeated official promises to improve safety.

On Friday, safety officials said 96 officials were being prosecuted for negligence or corruption in six coal mine disasters that killed a total of 528 people over the past 13 months.

In the latest effort, Xinhua said that as of January 1, mines will be required to post a "safety bond" of up to $750,000 to pay compensation for deaths and other accident-related expenses.

The exact number of Muslims is difficult to establish however, as census figures are often questioned and many countries choose not to compile such information anyway.

UNITED KINGDOM

Total population: 58.8 million

Muslim population: 1.6 million (2.8%)

Background: The UK has a long history of contact with Muslims, with links forged from the Middle Ages onwards. In the 19th Century Yemeni men came to work on ships, forming one of the country's first Muslim communities. In the 1960s, significant numbers of Muslims arrived as people in the former colonies took up offers of work. Some of the first were East African Asians, while many came from south Asia.

Permanent communities formed and at least 50% of the current population was born in the UK. Significant communities with links to Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and the Balkans also exist. The 2001 Census showed one third of the Muslim population was under 16 - the highest proportion for any group.

It also highlighted high levels of unemployment, low levels of qualifications and low home ownership. The UK favours multiculturalism, an idea shared by other countries which, in general terms, accepts all cultures as having equal value and has influence over how government engages with minorities.

Professor Haim Lotan told reporters that Mr Sharon would undergo "a catheterism in the next two or three weeks." He said that a minor stroke which was suffered by the 77-year-old Mr Sharon on December 18 was caused "by a clotting of blood which came from the heart". The procedure would involve the insertion of a hollow flexible tube through a blood vessel into the heart.

During the course of the press conference, a team of four doctors released Mr Sharon's health records, a first for an Israeli prime minister. They reiterated that the stroke that he suffered eight days ago was "very minor". While Mr Sharon's powers of speech were affected for several hours, it had no impact "on his memory and other faculties". The doctors also emphasised that Mr Sharon was "in good health", his only problem being with his weight.

Since he was admitted to hospital, the Prime Minister's weight had fallen from 118 to around 115 kilograms, they added.

As far as Ulrich Maly, Nuremberg's innovative mayor, is concerned, there is no other choice - the city has to come clean. The World Cup stadium in which England play Trinidad and Tobago on June 15 is set in the middle of the huge complex where Hitler staged his torch-lit rallies. Fans will be walking down the 2km road, Grosse Strasse, where more than 100,000 Hitler Youth marched before shouting allegiance to their Fuhrer.

The granite street is so broad that US planes were able to land there after the war. And the England-Trinidad match will be held in a stadium that was used by stormtroopers for grenade-throwing competitions and other paramilitary games to prepare for war.

Dr Maly, 41, said: We really don't have an alternative. It's not that we are cultivating a Nazi image for ourselves. We already have one. While other German cities sweep their Third Reich history under the carpet, Nuremberg is rebranding itself as a place determined to face up to its past.

We took a long hard look at the things for which Nuremberg is famous and it boils down to the medieval architecture, the Christmas market, the painter Albrecht Durer and, well, the Nazis.

So the England supporters will be treated, as they wander across Hitler's parade ground, to a potted history of Julius Streicher, one of the leading ideologists of National Socialism and a native son of Nuremberg. They will read, too, of the Nuremberg laws that stripped Jews of their rights and paved the way for the Holocaust.

The irony is striking. The British Government wants to use the World Cup to revise hostile stereotypes of England fans and achieve a breakthrough in Anglo-German relations. About 100,000 English people are expected during the tournament, the biggest foreign contingent, and if they impress the Germans with their fairness and sobriety they will have accomplished more in a few weeks than the past decade of British public diplomacy.

But the Nurembergers, out of the best of motives, risk reinforcing the Germans-as-Nazis stereotype that both governments have been so anxious to discard. It does not take a big leap of imagination to see England fans mimicking the goose-step march or heading for the Zeppelin Tribune from where Hitler took the salute from the massed ranks of party faithful.

The potential for Anglo-German misunderstanding is even greater than usual. If you get nervous about this sort of thing you shouldn't be doing the job, says Peter Murrmann, who is in charge of preparing the city for the England fans. Every fan must know about Hitler before he enters the stadium.

The football stadium is probably the building least stained by the Nazis. It was built in 1928 before the Nazis came to power. Even so, Hitler appeared there several times.

The Nazis intended to replace it with the largest sports stadium in the world, capable of holding 400,000 people. Albert Speer drew up the plans, but it never passed the excavation stage. The complex housed an SS barracks, a prisoner-of-war camp and a Nazi Strength-through-Joy leisure area. Mainly, though, it is remembered for Leni Riefenstahl's film Triumph of the Will, as the place where Hitler communed with his fanatical followers. Today it is a scruffy parkland. The air of neglect is deliberate: Nuremberg never understood what to do with this tainted space.

By a strange twist, England may have helped to sort out the problem. City officials admit that they would never have collected the €500,000 euros (342,000 pounds) needed for the stands that will be placed in the complex had it not been for the impending arrival of thousands of England supporters.