3,047 m: 2
2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
1,524 to 2,437 m: 7
914 to 1,523 m: 10
under 914 m: 7 (1999 est.)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
total: 25
2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
914 to 1,523 m: 2
under 914 m: 20 (1999 est.)

Heliports: 2 (1999 est.)

@Israel:Military

Military branches: Israel Defense Forces (includes ground, naval, and
air components), Pioneer Fighting Youth (Nahal), Frontier Guard, Chen
(women); note - historically there have been no separate Israeli
military services

Military manpower - military age: 18 years of age

Military manpower - availability:
males age 15-49: 1,499,186
females age 15-49: 1,462,063 (2000 est.)

Military manpower - fit for military service:
males age 15-49: 1,226,903
females age 15-49: 1,192,319 (2000 est.)

Military manpower - reaching military age annually:
males: 50,348
females: 47,996 (2000 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure: $8.7 billion (FY99)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 9.4% (FY99)

@Israel:Transnational Issues

Disputes - international: West Bank and Gaza Strip are
Israeli-occupied with current status subject to the
Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement - permanent status to be
determined through further negotiation; Golan Heights is
Israeli-occupied; Israeli troops in southern Lebanon since June 1982

Illicit drugs: increasingly concerned about cocaine and heroin abuse;
drugs arrive in country from Lebanon and increasingly Jordan

______________________________________________________________________

ITALY

@Italy:Introduction

Background: Italy became a nation-state belatedly - in 1861 when the
city-states of the peninsula and Sicily were united under King Victor
EMMANUEL. The Fascist dictatorship of Benito MUSSOLINI that took over
after World War I led to a disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany and
Italian defeat in World War II. Revival followed. Italy was a charter
member of NATO and the European Economic Community (EEC) and joined
the growing political and economic unification of Western Europe,
including the introduction of the euro in 1999. Persistent problems
include illegal immigration, the ravages of organized crime,
corruption, high unemployment, and the low incomes and technical
standards of southern Italy compared with the more prosperous north.

@Italy:Geography

Location: Southern Europe, a peninsula extending into the central
Mediterranean Sea, northeast of Tunisia

Geographic coordina