Libya attends Davos forum for the first time since 20 years

Organizers of the economic Davos forum announced yesterday that Libya will attend, for the first time in 20 years, the forum which will be held this month, stressing that "very important discussions will be held during it, as well as with the American administrator of Iraq, Paul Bremer, and five or six Iraqi ministers.

The forum which will be held on January 21 and 25 is expected to attract thousands politicians and businessmen, to discuss means of achieving peace through security and prosperity; the whole focus of the conference.

The forum's founder and executive chairman, Klaus Shwab, said that this year is quite different from the preceding one, in remarks to the previous forum which was held few weeks before the US-led war in Iraq. He added in a press conference at the forum's headquarters in Geneva that "people is more optimist, and we have more positive indicators on the geopolitical front."

In recent months the libyan leader made several steps to resume diplomatic relations with the USA and Europe, and vowed to give up all his programs to develop weapons of mass destruction. As a direct result to these steps, the Forum invited the Libyan prime minister Shukri Ghanem to attend the forum's sessions, which lasts for five days, in the first indication of the relations between Libya and the forum in more than 20 years.