WORLD IN BRIEF : GREECE : Premier Wins Top Socialist Party Post

Prime Minister Costas Simitis narrowly won a bruising leadership battle in an election to replace the ruling Socialist party’s late founder, Andreas Papandreou, as chairman. Simitis had threatened to resign as premier if not elected chairman, which would have split the party and created a political crisis. It was the first leadership transition since charismatic former Prime Minister Papandreou founded the Panhellenic Socialist Movement in 1974 and led it to three election victories beginning in 1981. After Papandreou resigned as premier in January, deputies elected Simitis, a pro-European reformer, over Akis Tsochadzopoulos, a Papandreou lieutenant. With his latest victory, the 60-year-old Simitis now has control over the party machine and government.