PARIS - Egypt's Prime Minister Essam Sharaf will participate in a summit of the Group of Eight (G8) on May 26 and 27 in France, the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported on Wednesday. France's Minister of Trade Pierre Lellouche invited Sharaf to attend the summit during his visit to Egypt last month. Lellouche pledged French would support Egypt. Lellouche had said his presence in Egypt last week was a testimony of the absolute conviction of France that Egypt is going to succeed in its transition to democracy. "We know it's a difficult transitional phase," Lellouche said more than two months after a popular revolt ousted strongman Hosni Mubarak. "We are going to do our best to help." "I believe the advent of democracy and rule of law would be to the interest of the Egyptian economy." He was quoted as saying that corruption, favoritism and violations of law had a bad impact on business and economy." Lellouche added. The French official said he told Sharaf that he was invited by the French president to attend the G8 summit at the end of May. The aim of the summit is to support Egypt in its forthcoming period. Tunisia was also invited to attend for the same purpose.
