Algeria announces Maghreban summit for end of december

Algerian foreign minister, Abdelaziz Belkhadem, announced here on Saturday the summit of the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) will be held end of next December.

The head of the Algerian diplomacy told peers from the four other Maghreb countries "the 7th Maghreban summit will be held in the date that was proposed to the Maghreban capitals." Talking to Maghreban peers who were meeting in Algiers to prepare for the 5"5 summit, next December in Tunis, Belkhadem hoped that the proposed date would "match" the agenda of Maghreban heads of state.

Algeria is said to have proposed next December as a date for the summit but the Maghreban foreign ministers did not talk in their first work session about the issue. A second session is scheduled this Saturday night.

The latest summit of the Arab Maghreb Union, that groups Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, was held in 1994.