New Delhi (ANA-MPA/V. Mourtis) --Prime minister George Papandreou on Thursday announced that measures will be taken for those "who are not paying today but should be paying", referring to the new tax bill to be tabled next week, while speaking to reporters in New Delhi on his official visit to India during which he will attend and address the 2010 Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS).

   In that context, Papandreou stressed that low-salary and small and medium size concerns need to be protected, adding that his government is determined to make the necessary changes because "if those changes are not made, thing will get worse".

   The premier noted that the government has sought the input of all sides with respect to the changes, and especially of those who have the biggest privileges and must contribute more to the effort.

   "None of us are happy with the difficulties the country is facing," Papandreou explained, adding though that "we must turn the crisis into an opportunity, and today is a historic opportunity that we must make use of".

   "The changes will be to the benefit of the citizens," he added.

   Papandreou noted that the current situation is the outcome of the many mistakes made in the past, stressing that it is a national need that the changes are made, particularly given that "the country is at risk".

   He also stressed that the inability and lack of determination of the previous years to introduce changes were what created the present-day problems "which we are paying".

   Papandreou is due to meet on Friday with Indian Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi, and the discussion will also review the 1982 five-continent "Initiative of the Six" peace movement founded by his father, then prime minister of Greece Andreas Papandreou, Mexican president Miguel de la Madrid, Argentinian prime minister Raul Alfonsin, Swedish prime minister Olof Palme, Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere, and Sonia Gandhi's late mother-in-law, then Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi, urging the superpowers to put an immediate halt to all nuclear weapon tests.

   The Initiative won the international peace award of the Beyond War Foundation in 1985.

   He did not rule out the prospect of revival of the initiative, since the threat of nuclear arms still exists today.