Mediterranean forum supports Palestinian statehood

The eleven countries of the Mediterranean forum, which met here, supported the creation of a Palestinian state and stressed, at the same time, Israel's right to "live in peace."

Foreign minister and top officials of the countries called for "supporting the Palestinian people's rights to self rule, including the right to have their own state" and that of Israel to "live in peace within safe and recognized borders." In the final statement read out to journalists by the head of the Maltese diplomacy, Guido de Marco, participants expressed concern over the deadlock in the peace process and called involved parties to resume negotiations.

Any other additional delay in the achievement of peace threatens to increase tension among people of the region, says the statement adopted by Italy, France, Egypt, Turkey, Malta, Morocco, Tunisia, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Algeria.

The forum also "recognized and encouraged the increasing role of the European Union in supporting the peace process in the middle east.

The participants renewed the need to work out a "Euro-Mediterranean charter for Peace and stability."

Launched in 1995 during the Barcelona conference (Spain), the Euro-Mediterranean partnership brings together the 15 EU member countries and the 12 non-member countries bordering the Mediterranean. It aims mainly at creating a free-trade area within the ten coming years.

The countries which took part in the Malta conference further pledged to develop cooperation in political, economic, social and cultural fields and looked into the issues of organized crime, drug trafficking and illegal migration webs.

In the economic field, they insisted on the importance of concluding and ratifying trade association agreements signed between the European Union and southern countries, including Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria. They backed a Portuguese initiative to hold in 2000 a Euro-Mediterranean conference on investments.