Thursday is the deadline for Nigeria to place a formal request for legal assistance to search the accounts of Sani Abacha in Switzerland. And the government will consider whether to fork out yet more money for the planned national exhibition.

Thursday is the deadline for Nigeria to place a formal request for legal assistance to search the accounts of Sani Abacha in Switzerland. Assets belonging to the late dictator, his associates, and his family were frozen by Swiss authorities at the end of last year.

Nigeria must prove there exists a link between its domestic investigations and the blocked assets, otherwise they will be unfrozen. A money laundering investigation has been opened, and the order covers 120 accounts in a dozen banks based in Zurich and Geneva.

In other business:

- The government will be considering whether to fork out yet more cash for the planned Swiss national exhibition. Expo 02's president, Franz Steinegger, wants an additional Sfr300 million. The government must make a decision by the end of this month.

- The army will reveal its yearly report in the capital, Bern, on Tuesday.

- Also on Tuesday, the Swiss People's Party is due unveil its proposals for the public election of cabinet ministers.

- On Wednesday, the cabinet will hold its first meeting of the new millennium.

- On Thursday, residents of Urnaesch in canton Aargau will be welcoming in the new millennium. The reason for the delay? They still follow the Julian calendar, under which the new year falls a week later than the Gregorian calendar.

By Samantha Tonkin

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