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5. Conclusions

The radio field around the EGRET source 2EG tex2html_wrap_inline1041 shows, once the galactic disk radiation has been properly subtracted, several sources, mainly SNRs. Three of these remnants are reported for first time in this paper. The only strong radio source within the 95% source location confidence contour of 2EG tex2html_wrap_inline1041 is the flat-spectrum, gravitational lensed QSO PKS 1830-211. Our observations clearly dismiss the possibility that one of the previously unknown SNRs could be the radio counterpart of the tex2html_wrap_inline1035-ray source, strengthening the identification with the lensed blazar proposed by Mattox et al. (1997). Additional support is provided by the spectrum analysis of 2EG tex2html_wrap_inline1041 which presents a steep index tex2html_wrap_inline1441 and by the presence of variability in the tex2html_wrap_inline1035-ray light curve. PKS 1830-211 seems to be, consequently, the first well-resolved gravitational lensed object detected by EGRET.

Acknowledgements

We thank E. Hurrel for assistance during the observations and an anonymous referee for call our attention to Mattox et al. (1997) paper, which was published after this work was completed. G.E.R is grateful to the IAG group of radioastronomy for assistance during the preparation of this paper. This work has been supported by the brazilian agency FAPESP and the argentine agency CONICET. Additional support from the University of La Plata (UNLP) and Grant PMT-PICT 0388 from ANPCT is also gratefully acknowledged.



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