Greece's prime minister has held phone discussions about the crisis in Egypt with several senior leaders from the Middle East, including Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Between Saturday and Wednesday, George Papandreou spoke with Mubarak; Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Jordan's King Abdullah; Nobel peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, seen as a potential Mubarak successor; Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and EU President Herman Van Rompuy.

Prime Minister George Papandreou, in an interview with the British radio network BBC-4, expressed support for Egypt's transition to democracy without violence.

Speaking to the programme "The Word at One", Papandreou said "the violence we are observing in the past days must stop and transition must take place in a way that will bring complete democracy and freedom that, in particular, the youth of Egypt is calling for."

The Greek prime minister further said that he is in constant contact with all the Egyptian leaders, including President Hosni Mubarak to whom he conveyed the necessity for transition to democracy without violence.

Papandreou also said that he conveyed to the Egyptian president the desire of the international community as well as of the Egyptians for specific actions for the transition to democracy.

Greek PM,also,  after his meeting with Cyprus President Demetris Christofias on Thursday commenting the latest developments in the Egypt issue said the folowing:

Let me say a few words on the subject of Egypt and the region.

Of course, starting again from the energy issue, I would like to stress that for us, energy policy is a factor of peace and cooperation of states and people, not an issue - this is exactly what we want to prevent -
of conflicts or confrontations.

Already, we have demonstrated this, with the pipelines that bring to Greece significant energy reserves, either from Russia or through Turkey. This should certainly also be the nature of developments in the Eastern Mediterranean and the wider Mediterranean region as regards energy - a factor of peace.

The Egyptian people and particularly the new generation of Egypt calls for change, democratic rights and freedoms, calls for parliamentary parties. All these need to be guaranteed, even constitutionally.

It is therefore necessary for this transition towards democracy to advance, for these changes to be realized in a reliable, direct and stable way, without violence.

I may stress this, because we do not see the developments in Egypt from a faraway part of the globe. It is our neighbourhood and we have a special interest in it.

First of all, we are a country of friendly ties with Egypt. Greece has a longstanding relation of friendship with Egypt, and both people share a relation of reciprocity and, of course, a relation marked by the Greek communities, particularly the one of Alexandria, but also by the Greeks still residing in Egypt and the Patriarchate of Alexandria. All these connect us with the neighbouring country.

Egypt is in our immediate neighbourhood. The role of Egypt is always important in the region, for the Arabs, for the Arab world, and certainly for the peace effort, particularly with regard to the issue of Palestine.

Thus, I think that democratic change will provide a new strength to the Egyptian society, a new force to Egypt, and a more powerful, I would suggest, role that we would welcome, for the broader region and the Arab
world.

For this reason, all these days, I have been in close telephone contact with regional leaders, precisely because it is a vital issue for Greece.

I believe that we, as a member state of the European Union that is also part of the neighbourhood – as is certainly Cyprus as well - we have a special role to play, to contribute to this orderly democratic evolution.

In the last few days, I have had contacts with President Mubarak, as well as other leading figures in Egypt, such as Mohamed El Baradei and Amr Moussa, but also with other regional leaders, such as the President of Palestine, the Prime Minister of Israel and the King of Jordan.

We will continue these contacts and would undertake any initiative needed in order to contribute in a positive way to a smooth course of developments in the interest not only of Greece and the European Union but above all of the Egyptian people.