Egypt, Saudi Arabia to establish free zone area

The Saudi foreign minister Saud al-Faisal said on Monday he will discuss today with the Egyptian foreign minister Amr Moussa the establishment a free trade area between the two states and canceling of customs restrictions.

In a statement to the Saudi daily al-Watan issued on Monday in al-Riyadh, the Saudi foreign minister added: " we are in our way for economic integration between the two countries," adding that the first of these steps is to cancel custom restriction gradually. He added " we will also discuss means of having a free zone because relations are remarkable between the two countries."

On his expectations that the free zone between Saudi Arabia and Egypt will be a nucleus for the common Arab market he said:" we can only reach the common Arab market through free trade, which is an objective for economic integration among the Arab states. We seek to implement this promptly."

However, meetings of the 10th session of the Saudi- Egyptian joint committee start today, chaired by the two countries foreign ministers. The two sides will discuss the establishment of the free zone which was initially signed in the committee's earlier meetings in 1998.