Brussels, 30/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Police Office, Europol, signed a co-operation agreement with Lithuania on Thursday in Vilnius, and is to sign another with Latvia on Friday in Riga. These agreements will allow an exchange of information on persons between police forces. Europol, which has already signed similar agreements with all the other acceding countries with the exception of Malta, obtained negotiation mandates at the beginning of October for Lithuania, Latvia and Malta. Europol is also linked by agreements permitting data exchange on persons with other countries and organisations, including the United States, Bulgaria, Norway, Iceland and Interpol. It has also signed co-operation agreements with the European Central Bank, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction and the World Customs Association, but these agreements refer only to technical exchanges and strategic reports, and do not allow for the exchange of personal data. Other agreements have been negotiated with Eurojust, Russia and Colombia. Europeans and Russians hope to be able to sign this agreement at the Summit of 6 November in Rome (EUROPE of 4 October, p.8).