Tunisian president meets visiting Libyan FM

Tunisian President Zine Al-Abidine Bin Ali met here Monday with visiting Libyan Foreign Minister Omar Mustafa Al-Montassir who was here on a working visit.

Al-Montassir told reporters after the meeting that he discussed with the president the latest developments on the Arab and African arena, and reached consensus on many Maghreban and Arab issues.

The two sides reaffirmed their determination to make intensive efforts to implement the signed accords and enhance the ties among the members of the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA, mustering besides Libya and tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania and Morocco), he said.

Tunisian Minister of National Defense Al-Habib Bin-Yahya, on behalf of the foreign minister who was in Jordan to attend King Hussein's funeral, also met with Al-Montassir and signed with him a memorandum on bilateral cooperation in foreign affairs.

The Libyan minister also held talks with Tunisian Minister of Trade Al-Monder Al-Zanaydi on ways of boosting trade and economic ties between the two Arab countries.

Al-Montassir's visit aims to finalize the preparations for the session of the joint Tunisian-Libyan committee due to be held on February 17 and 18 in Tripoli, capital of Libya.