Minister of State János Fónagy represented the Hungarian Government at the funeral of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Mr Fónagy recalled his decade-long acquaintance with the deceased: "I met him when he was in good health and I also had the opportunity to visit him as member of a Hungarian delegation just after he was hospitalised eight years ago".

He had first met the late prime minister at a commemoration in Auschwitz, which Mr Fónagy attended for personal reasons: some of his family members had been murdered in the death camp. Since Mr Sharon had an ethnic Hungarian wife from Transylvania, he was interested in Hungary and knew the country well, the Hungarian Minister of State recalled.

(Ministry of National Development)