Moroccan, French FMs hold talks

Moroccan Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Minister, Mohamed Benaissa, conferred Wednesday with French peer, Dominique de Villepin, on the fringes of the 5"5 dialogue held in Sainte Maxime April 9-10.

The talks were dominated by the situation in Iraq and the key role the United Nations should play in the reconstruction of Iraq.

Benaissa and de Villepin equally surveyed the privileged relations binding Morocco and France as well as other regional and international issues of common concern.

The Moroccan official had earlier attended a consultation and coordination meeting of the foreign affairs ministers of the member countries of the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA, mustering Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania).

Morocco and France will present to the Sainte Maxime meeting a document on a comprehensive and balanced approach to migration and the movement of people between the two banks of the Mediterranean.

The joint move is a premiere between two countries belonging to the two banks of the Mediterranean.

The Sainte Maxime encounter is the third since the 5"5 dialogue forum was first launched in Portugal in 2001. The dialogue involves the five UMA countries and Spain, France, Portugal, Italy and Malta.