Next to Dom Mintoff himself, I am the person who has participated in the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe - the CSCE - most consistently. This involved representing Malta in the preparatory multilateral talks in Helsinki (1972-3), the conference itself in Helsinki and Geneva (1973), the follow-up meetings in Belgrade (1976-8) and Madrid (1980-3), the Stockholm conference (1984), as well as the meetings of experts in Montreaux (1978), Venice (1984), Palma de Mallorca (1990), Oslo (1991), Cracow (1991) and Valletta (1991).

As such, I find the letter by Prassede Borg (April 8) on the use of the veto by Malta in this conference a complete travesty of the truth. I wonder what reliable sources the author makes use of, for the ridiculous claim that "Mr Mintoff got all the world to think like he did. They accepted his argument because he stood up to them, using the veto".

The truth is that the countries participating in the CSCE, and not the whole world, agreed with Mr Mintoff's contention that security in Europe had to be considered together with security in the Mediterranean well before he withheld his agreement to the consensus reached by all the other European countries, Canada and the US.

Every time that Mr Mintoff used the veto it was in an unsuccessful attempt to obtain something more, and each time he had to give in when there was the threat that the conference would go on without Malta.

I have given all the details in two chapters, covering 38 pages, in my memoires, No, Honourable Minister.

Malta's use, or rather abuse, of the veto at the Madrid meeting, when Malta stopped the conference for over 50 days without achieving anything more, was criticised even by the Foreign Minister of friendly non-aligned Yugoslavia, Lazar Mojsov.