Part 268

Fiscal year: calendar year

Transportation --------------

Railways: total: 649 km Gabon State Railways (OCTRA) standard gauge: 649 km 1.435-m gauge; single track (1994)

Highways: total: 7,456 km paved: 560 km unpaved: 6,896 km (1988 est.)

Waterways: 1,600 km perennially navigable

Pipelines: crude oil 270 km; petroleum products 14 km

Ports: Cape Lopez, Kango, Lambarene, Libreville, Mayumba, Owendo, Port-Gentil

Merchant marine: total: 3 bulk (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 36,976 GRT/60,319 DWT (1995 est.)

Airports: total: 54 with paved runways over 3 047 m: 1 with paved runways 2 438 to 3 047 m: 1 with paved runways 1 524 to 2 437 m: 7 with paved runways 914 to 1 523 m: 1 with paved runways under 914 m: 21 with unpaved runways 1 524 to 2 437 m: 8 with unpaved runways 914 to 1 523 m: 15 (1995 est.)

Communications --------------

Telephones: 22,000 (1991 est.)

Telephone system: domestic: adequate system of cable, microwave radio relay, tropospheric scatter, radiotelephone communication stations, and a domestic satellite system with 12 earth stations international: satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations: AM 6, FM 6, shortwave 0

Radios: 250,000 (1993 est.)

Television broadcast stations: 3 (repeaters 5)

Televisions: 40,000 (1993 est.)

Defense -------

Branches: Army, Navy, Air Force, Presidential Guard, National Gendarmerie, National Police

Manpower availability: males age 15-49: 273,662 males fit for military service: 139,439 males reach military age (20) annually: 10,966 (1996 est.)

Defense expenditures: exchange rate conversion - $154 million, 2.4% of GDP (1993)

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@Gaza Strip ----------

The Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements ("the DOP"), signed in Washington on 13 September 1993, provides for a transitional period not exceeding five years of Palestinian interim self-government in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Permanent status negotiations began on 5 May 1996.

Map ---

Location: 31 25 N, 34 20 E -- Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Egypt and Israel

Geography ---------

Location: Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Egypt and Israel

Geographic coordinates: 31 25 N, 34 20 E