Moussa: Egypt ready to host the conference of the Middle East and North Africa

Egypt is willing to host the next Middle East and North Africa Economic Conference (MENA) as long as "serious" peace talks and negotiations continue, Egyptian foreign minister Amr Moussa said on Tuesday.

He said prospects for regional cooperation, including Israel's integration in the region, depended on "real and substantive progress on the peace process."

Moussa said that after the conference of Sharm El-Sheikh and in case the peace process is revitalized on the Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian tracks, there will be a chance for Egypt to host the conference during the second or third quarter of the coming year.

This came in his reply to a question by a participant in the Euromoney conference about convening this conference in Egypt. Moussa said, "This conference is regarded as the biggest annual conference that specifies the features of regional cooperation and includes businessmen from across the area."

Moussa said that this conference supports the peace process, and if there isn't peace, there will be no conference, saying that Egypt, for this reason, didn't care to host or even attend the conference during the last three years.