Securities and Exchange Commission April 20, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Commission is adopting amendments to Form 20-F to provide a one-time accommodation relating to financial statements prepared under International Financial Reporting Standards (``IFRS'') for foreign private issuers registered with the SEC. This accommodation applies to foreign private issuers that adopt IFRS prior to or for the first financial year starting on or after January 1, 2007. The accommodation permits eligible foreign private issuers for their first year of reporting under IFRS to file two years rather than three years of statements of income, changes in shareholders' equity and cash flows prepared in accordance with IFRS, with appropriate related disclosure. The accommodation retains current requirements regarding the reconciliation of financial statement items to generally accepted accounting principles as used in the United States (``U.S. GAAP''). In addition, the Commission is amending Form 20-F to require certain disclosures of all foreign private issuers that change their basis of accounting to IFRS.