Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit agreed to procedures facilitating the formation of the General Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean during his meeting with foreign ministers from France and Spain in Paris on Sunday, reports Doaa El-Bey The ministers also agreed to set a timetable for the holding of the France-Africa summit which will convene in Egypt. Abul-Gheit discussed details of the summit with his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner, together with French suggestions for reviving the peace process, underlining that any re-launch would have to be based upon clear objectives. A Foreign Ministry spokesman stressed that the meeting had focussed on ways to activate the Union for the Mediterranean, of which Egypt and France are co- presidents. It also addressed issues arising from the upcoming Spanish presidency of the European Union. Kouchner and Abul-Gheit also discussed preparations for the summit between President Hosni Mubarak and President Nicolas Sarkozy, which is expected to discuss regional issues, on the top of which is the peace process, as well as the French-Egyptian cooperation in Africa. Following the meeting Kouchner announced that consultations and meetings would continue in order to remove the obstacles that had led to the Union for the Mediterranean foreign ministers' meeting in Turkey to be postponed. With Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos, Abul-Gheit discussed the results of the Spanish prime minister's recent visit to Cairo, particularly his agreement with President Mubarak to hold an Egyptian-European Summit in Spain. The planned Egyptian-European Summit is the first of its kind to be held by the EU with one of its Mediterranean partners and reflects, said the foreign ministry spokesman, the esteem in which the Egyptian leadership is held by world leaders. Abul-Gheit's consultations with the Spanish foreign minister also tackled ways to support the Egyptian-Spanish Partnership and Cooperation Accord's work mechanisms, which comes within the framework of Egypt's attempts to enhance its relations with several European states, boosting such ties to incorporate strategic cooperation, while promoting suggestions presented by Egypt during the last Egyptian-European partnership meeting held in April 2009 in Luxemburg. Abul-Gheit left Paris for Brussels in order to hold meetings with EU officials.
