PARIS, Dec 29: Two years after the introduction of the first euros, the EU is to introduce in 2004 its first new coins, and this four years ahead of schedule.

One coin will commemorate the opening of the Olympic Games in Greece, and the second, to be minted by France, is expected to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the D-day landings in Normandy.

Although the European Commission had decreed that the twelve countries which constitute Euroland would not be able to mint new coins before 2008, aimed at avoiding confusion over the number of coins in circulation - a total of 96 coins, if each member country mints eight different coins - the Commission has accepted the idea that its member countries issue special commemorative coins.

The first EU member to mint a new coin will be Greece, which will issue in January 50 million copies of a two-euro coin that will celebrate the upcoming summer Olympic games to be held in Athens.

A few weeks later, France will issue a special coin, and although a final choice has not yet been handed down - the French finance minister Francis Mer is to make the decision on Jan 19 - the coin should mark the sixtieth anniversary next June 6 of the Allied landing in Normandy, ceremonies expected to be attended by President George W Bush and which Paris is intending to make use of to mark its reconciliation with Washington.

The other possibility would be a coin marking the new European Constitution, but then, that may not be for tomorrow, given the inability at the recent Brussels summit for the EU countries to agree on a document, the Constitution now expected to come into force only in 2009 or thereabouts.