The so-called Five-plus-Five Dialogue forum of North African, European and Mediterranean countries is to meet in Tripoli between July 9 and 11 to discuss the "war on terror" and international drug trafficking, an official Libyan source said Sunday.
The interior ministers from the North African countries of Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia, along with their counterparts from Spain, France, Italy, Portugal and the Mediterranean island of Malta, will also broach the topic of security cooperation and immigration, he said.
Foreign ministers from the ten countries met in Tripoli in May and called for further coordination concerning the US-led "war on terror."
The Five-plus-Five grouping was formally launched in the year 1991, but had been put into deep freeze by the 1991 Gulf War, tensions between neighboring Algeria and Morocco, and sanctions on Libya for suspected "terrorist" activities, according to AFP.
However, the process was revived with a ministerial-level meeting in Lisbon in 2001, buoyed by Libya's rehabilitation on the world stage after it agreed to hand over two suspects for trial in connection to the 1988 Pan Am 103 Lockerbie bombing. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
