ROMANIA: Daniel McLaughlinis in Bucharest for the celebrations.
Searchlights strafed the sky and the thump of rock music echoed around Bucharest last night as Romania prepared for a huge party to mark its entry into the European Union alongside Balkan neighbour Bulgaria.
Both nations plan to join the bloc with great fanfare at the stroke of 2007, to celebrate the end of a long and often arduous journey of reform in the wake of eight other communist states that became EU members in May 2004.
As a clear and freezing night fell over Bucharest, city workers were erecting a series of giant stages, which tomorrow night will host ageing rockers Joe Cocker and Europe, whose biggest hit, The Final Countdown, played relentlessly at huge volume in the centre of the city yesterday.
One of the stages, decked in the blue-and-gold of the EU flag, was taking shape a few yards from the building where a helicopter landed to whisk dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife away from the baying crowds of the 1989 revolution; they were soon captured and executed, bringing an end to communist rule.
Huge screens are already shining across this city of two million people, ready to show revellers in Bucharest the celebratory scenes in other cities around Romania, many of whose 22 million people are expected to take to the chilly streets to greet 2007.
Romanian television, which is providing constant coverage of every aspect of preparations for EU entry, said some 2,500 police would be on duty in Bucharest, and that New Year party dresses were selling at twice the usual rate.
Several hundred thousand euro worth of fireworks will erupt over Bucharest tomorrow night, which will also mark the start of the Transylvanian town of Sibiu's year as European Capital of Culture.
The medieval heart of Sibiu, which was built by German settlers in the 12th century, has been extensively restored for the occasion, and veteran British boy band East 17 is among the acts invited to play in the new year.
Amid the EU-themed preparations, some Romanians stuck to old traditions: on Bucharest corners, Roma children cradled little lambs in bags and blankets, offering good luck to anyone who would pay a few coins to stroke the bleating animals; others dressed in motley outfits of bright cloth and rags, and banged drums and clashed cymbals as they danced through the streets, playfully confronting pedestrians with requests for cash.
To the south, Bulgaria's eight million people prepared their own national celebrations.
Bulgarian foreign minister Ivalo Kalfin will join his Romanian counterpart in Bucharest for tomorrow's events, and meet Romanian president Traian Basescu and prime minister Calin Tariceanu.
On January 1st he will be joined in Sofia by foreign ministers from several countries, EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn, and Ireland's Environment Minister, Dick Roche, who will arrive in Bulgaria from celebrations in Romania.
Mr Roche's attendance carries special significance for both Balkan nations, with whom he spent considerable time negotiating EU accession agreements during Ireland's presidency of the bloc in 2004.