Egypt-US Symposium urged the need to a Free Trade Zone

In a speech before the two-day Egypt-America relations conference at Al-Ahram Center for strategic studies.

Hajar El-Eslambouli, the Assistant Foreign Minister for American Affairs said that there are over 6 million Arab Americans in the US, who could be active players in expounding the situation and policies of the Middle East.

Eslambouli said Egypt is backing all efforts in a bid to set up a free trade area with the US. She called on the businessmen to attract US investments into Egypt.

"The Foreign Ministry is trying to attain this goal through several attempts, one of which is the door-knocking Egyptian mission, that go to the US to explain the incentives of the Egyptian economy to American businessmen," she said.

US Ambassador in Cairo, Daniel Kurtzer, said the US does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, an Egyptian statement reported.

Addressing a two-day meeting on Egyptian-American relations organized by AL-Ahram center for strategic studies, kurtzer said that joint meetings were part of US attempts to understand the way others thought.

The American ambassador reviewed the growth of Egyptian-American relations and the US support to Egypt to advance its information technology, describing such cooperation as edifices to the Egyptian and American friendship.