S WEDEN is one of the oldest continuously existing sates in the world with a history of more than 1000 years. During all this time Sweden has been and still is a monarchy, .illhough the king today has mainly ceremonial functions as Head of State.

Sweden is a parliamental \ democracy with members of parliament directly elected through proportional representation Terms are for four years and Sweden has universal suffrage from the age of 18. Voter turnout was 81.4 |x r cent in the last election in 1998

The Social Democratic Parly has held power alone or in coalitions during the periods 1932-1976 and 1982-1991 as well as from 1994 and onwards. Alter the 1998 elections, the Socialdemocrats formed a minority government with 131 of the 349 seats in Parliament

The 10 ministries are mainly concerned with preparing new government bills. Enforcement ol the law is handled by 100 or so relatively independent central administrative agencies and the 2 1 country administrations. Each country has a popularly elected council (hat is entitled to levy income taxes and have the re-

sponsibility for health care

Below the councils are the 289 municipalities (local governments) in Sweden. Eac h has a popularly elected council which collects taxes and operates public services as schools, child and elderly care utilities, housing and cultural and leisure activities.

Protecting the rights of Individuals in their contacts with authorities is fundamental to the process of law in Sweden. In this context (he Swedish ombudsman system, established in 1809. is an internationally well known guarantee against oppressive measures and misgovernance in the Judiciary and public administration

Viking country

Sweden is situated oti the Sc andinavlan peninsula in northern Europe. Sweden played a leading role in European history' during Viking times (900-1200 AD) as well as in the seventeenth century, when Sweden — then compromising also Finland. Estonia. Latvia and part of northern Germany — was one of Europe's great powers.

In size Sweden has an area of 450 000 square kilometres, roughly three times as big as Bangladesh. Half of the land is covered by forest. Less than 10 per cent Is farmland and nearly 1000000 lakes do the countryside. A long mountain chain in (he Northwest reaches heights of up to 7000 ft and along (he coastline lies thousands of islands.

With a population of just lie-low 9 million inhabitants Sweden is one of the most sparsely populated countries in Europe Swedish cities are largely shaped by nature instead of taming and dominating It. Stockholm is the capital and the largest city with approximately 1 million inhabitants.

Long known for its strict policy of neutrality. Sweden became a member of the European Union in 1995. Sweden's chairmanship of the EU in 2001 will be a pew milestone in the country s El -involvement.