Romanian newspapers on Monday show intense interest for the war in Lebanon and the evacuation of Romanians from country. Renewed debates on possible early elections are also tackled in the papers, while debates continue on a proposal to reveal the names of working journalists who used to collaborate with the former Communist secret police in Romania.

Evenimentul Zilei describes how a Romanian learning at a university in Beirut sees the chaos that engulfed the region. The student, Ionut, tells the differences on how people are affected by war in the Christian part of the Lebanese capital and in the Hezbollah strongholds.

And he shows humor has not disappeared among the local people, despite their increasing worries of a land offensive by Israel.

Also in Evenimentul Zilei, the Israeli land, sea and air blockade imposed on Lebanon makes it difficult for foreign citizens to leave the country. There are some 1,000 Romanians there and, according to official data, only 330 requested assistance for evacuation by Sunday.

And at least 125 had left Lebanon for Syria by themselves, on an alternative route.

Adevarul reports that the Romanian airline company Tarom has prepared special flights to Alep in Syria to help evacuate some 500 Romanians, as diplomatic missions in Lebanon and Syria suggested there were problems with the Damascus route.

And the newspaper also quotes Foreign Ministry sources who say there is a “plan B” for evacuation in case anything goes wrong, but no details were provided in this regard.

And Cotidianul informs that the Romanian intelligence services have given President Basescu the information collected from Middle East, showing that the conflict has serious chances of spiraling out of control.

Elsewhere in the newspapers, Evenimentul Zilei reports that the Democratic Party, a member of the governing coalition, has reopened the issue of early elections and even put forward a sort of electoral offers. The newspaper writes that the Democrats plan for early elections in 2007, a year before schedule.

The debate comes as the Constitutional Court decided last week that President Basescu might organize a referendum anytime and on any issue, which allowed the leaders of the group - formerly run by Basescu himself - to gather courage and talk about elections again.

They called for a poll ipmedately after Romania joins the EU and described their main electoral argument: the need for a stable parliamentary majority.

Cotidianul reports that the other major member of the governing coalition, the Liberal Party, received the proposal with a condition: the introduction of an uninominal vote, which for now is impossible to introduce.

Meanwhile, Evenimentul Zilei fuels the debate on the relationship some Romanian journalists held with ex-dictator Nicolae Ceausescu’s secret police, the Securitate.

It quotes a historian who says he saw the Securitate files of people who are still working as journalists and whose names have been included in a list of media personalities that according to an NGO, the Civic Media Association, should be checked for possible collaboration with the Securitate.

At least three of those journalists collaborated with the Communist secret police, historian Stajarel Olaru said, but he refused to give the names.

And Gandul interviews Baroness Emma Nicholson, a former European Parliament rapporteur for Romania, who says half the members of the EP were cheated by lobby groups that have financial interests in the reactivation of international adoptions in Romania.

In the interview, she says a petition signed by 385 MEPs and calling for a new analysis on 1,000 international adoption cases initiated in Romania does not represent the point of view of the European Parliament.

And she claims the 1,000 foster families who were brutally separated from their adopted Romanian children following a memorandum that stopped the adoptions in Romania do not exist. That is, because they never saw those children, at least officially, but still push for their adoptions. Which means the MEPs who signed the petition were misinformed.