Closer Africa THE Foreign Ministry will host today a seminar on the promotion of trade and investment in Africa, organised to mark Africa Day. The seminar was launched last year to encourage Egyptian entrepreneurs to visit the continent. In a press release, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit said the seminar comes "in light of Egypt's keenness to coordinate and strengthen economic and trade cooperation with African countries". The seminar, Abul-Gheit added, will examine Egyptian-African trade relations and consider means to enhance them. He said a key objective was to look into "ways to abolish obstacles that may hinder potential opportunities for closer trade and investment relations between Egypt and its African brothers". The seminar is also part of an intensified Egyptian effort to win the support of African countries in its bid for a permanent Security Council. Egypt's top diplomat also said Cairo would soon convene bilateral committee meetings with Djibouti, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia which will focus on trade and economic cooperation. Abul-Gheit is planning a four-leg African tour with stops in Madagascar, Mozambique, Mauritius, and Namibia. Egypt is also planning a package of urgent medical aid to Benin after having received thousands of refugees who have fled civil war-wracked Togo. In a related development, Abul-Gheit received Alpha Oumar Konare, head of the African Union (AU). Chasing a seat FOREIGN Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit met in Cairo Monday with envoys from China and Japan to discuss UN reform and expansion of the Security Council. Abul-Gheit stressed that Egypt was entitled to contribute to the process of UN reform "from a perspective that would build more international harmony". The Egyptian role, Abul-Gheit stated, could help "proposed reforms to advance international peace and security" from a Middle Eastern perspective. In an interview with Al-Ahram, China's Assistant Foreign Minister of West Asian and North African Affairs Zhai Jun said his country supported expanding the UN Security Council "in order for all civilisations, including Arab and Islamic, to be represented". Due to its Islamic and Arabic heritage, the Chinese official noted, "Egypt is qualified to earn a permanent seat in the Security Council." No such forthcoming support was demonstrated from Tokyo. According to Takaya Suto, the Japanese envoy, Tokyo would lend its support "to the African continent for two permanent seats at the Security Council, regardless of the ethnic or cultural origins of the two states". However, Hicham Badr, Egypt's ambassador to Japan, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the Japanese position should not be read as a lukewarm stance towards Cairo. "This is not the case. The issue is that the Japanese government wishes to support the choice of the African continent as such." New envoy ISRAEL'S newly appointed ambassador to Egypt, Shalom Cohen, arrived in Cairo this week to take up his post at the tightly guarded embassy overlooking the Nile. Cohen is expected to submit his credentials to President Hosni Mubarak within the next few days. Cohen is the nineth Israeli ambassador to Egypt since the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty in 1979. The first Israeli ambassador was appointed in February 1980. A career diplomat, Cohen's name has often been associated with the Middle East. He was in charge of Israel's interest section in Tunisia in 1996. In press statements he made before arriving in Cairo, he stressed he would try to strengthen bilateral ties. Egyptian- Israeli relations was the top item on the agenda of talks held earlier this week between Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul- Gheit and his Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Jordan. During the talks, Abul-Gheit emphasised the necessity for the Israeli government to coordinate its upcoming unilateral withdrawal from Gaza with the Palestinian Authority. He also stated the need for the prompt resumption of dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians in order to "boost the implementation of the Sharm El-Sheikh understandings". Shalom also stated Israel's desire to normalise its relations with several Arab countries. Meanwhile, a high-ranking Egyptian security delegation arrived in Gaza on Monday upon the invitation of Palestinian factions, to mediate an end to the recent dispute between Fatah and Hamas over the results of contested municipal elections. Death of a suspect ON MONDAY the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) called for an investigation into the death in custody of the suspected leader of a cell that attacked tourists in Egypt last month. Reportedly, security sources said that Ashraf Said Youssef -- the mastermind behind the 7 April Khan Al-Khalili attacks and the twin attacks that followed on 30 April in the downtown Abdel- Moneim Riyad square and Al-Sayeda Aisha neighbourhood -- died on Thursday after "deliberately" banging his head against the wall while under interrogation. "The organisation suspects that the death occurred because the man in question was tortured and badly treated," the EOHR said in a statement. "The EOHR demands an immediate investigation into this incident and calls for the results of the investigation to be announced." Also in April, Youssef's cousin died in police custody, but the circumstances surrounding his death were unclear. It was not clear whether his cousin was a suspect or whether he was merely summoned for questioning.
