JacquesToubon, the former French minister of culture, has been re-elected as presidentof film support body Eurimages.

The re-election took place thisweek in Istanbul at Eurimages' 91st management board meeting.Toubon, who was first appointed in November 2002, now has another two-yearterm. Normal Eurimages rules only allow a president to be re-elected once.

Although a full merger of thetwo schemes now appears distinctly unlikely, Toubon said: "Creatingsynergy between Eurimages and the European Union's Media Programme should be apriority".

Eurimagesis run by the Council of Europe, a cultural body that is independent of theEuropean Union. Established in 1998 it has injected Euros 280m of finance into980 co-productions.