King resolved to carry on modernization efforts, French FM

Visiting French foreign affairs minister, Michel Barnier, stressed in Agadir Monday King Mohammed VI's resolve to carry on the "reform and modernization process" in the Kingdom.

In a statement to the press, following his meeting with the sovereign, Barnier, who started on Sunday a two-day official visit to the Kingdom, said Morocco can "count on France's support and on (its) partnership with the European Union" to achieve this process.

He said he conveyed a "message of friendship and affection" from President Jacques Chirac to King Mohammed VI.

Morocco and France have always been together "in good and bad times," said the French official who recalled in this regard last year's May 16 terrorist attacks in Casablanca killing 45 people including the 12 suicide bombers, and last February's earthquake in the Northern region of Al Hoceima that made over 629 casualties.

Barnier said his talks with king Mohammed VI covered "issues of common interest," including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the situation in Iraq, the Sahara issue (opposing Morocco and the Algerian-backed separatist movement Polisario), the integration of the North West African region of the Maghreb, as well as the US Greater Middle East Initiative.

He noted the existence of a "real concordance of views" on these issues between Morocco and France.