Finnish and Spanish PMs take island break

Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar and his wife, Ana Botella, are in Majorca, spending a weekend with the Finnish Premier Paavo Lipponen, his wife Paivi and their three daughters, Cecilia, Sofia and Emilia. Both leaders posed with their families for the media yesterday at the five star hotel where they are staying in the Playa de Muro. During the five minute photo call Aznar made a quip about his Finnish colleague's large family. The visit is a strictly private one, although the two leaders are expected to exchange points of view over various international matters and institutional reforms in the European Union in particular. Unofficial sources said that Sr Aznar and his wife are expected to leave Majorca today. Paavo Lipponen hit the headlines in March when he took paternity leave to look after his new born daughter. It was the second time that he had taken paternity leave, which is recognised under Finnish law. Lipponen, 58, took the paternity leave after the birth of his third daughter, his second child by his wife Paivi Hetzberg, a history teacher whom he married in 1998 after a divorce from his first wife. He attended the birth and justified the paternity leave saying that his wife needed his help. He took six days leave, the maximum allowed under Finnish law in the weeks immediately after a birth.