Powell meets Arab leaders in Morocco

US Secretary of State Colin Powell joins senior officials from the Group of Eight nations in Rabat tomorrow for a meeting with representatives of 23 countries across North Africa and the Middle East to discuss reforms in the Arab world.

The Forum for the Future is being co-hosted by Powell and Morocco’s foreign minister, Mohamed Benaissa, to discuss political and economic changes under way in the region.

Delegates to the conferences, mostly foreign and finance ministers, were being encouraged “to put all their problems on the table and foster a constructive dialogue”, organisers said in a statement.

The United States proposed bringing together the region’s leaders again in Morocco after a summit of Arab heads of state in Tunisia earlier this year was marred by the walkout of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and the absence of several leaders.

Under heavy security, the foreign ministers of Iran, Syria and Lebanon were among those gathering in Rabat for tomorrow’s meeting to discuss how to peacefully settle inter-Arab conflicts and improve regional co-operation.

The conference is part of Washington’s Greater Middle East Initiative, which was unveiled in June at the G-8 summit of major industrial countries: Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

The initiative urges Arab states to promote democracy, human rights and economic liberalisation. Saturday’s meeting also was expected to deal with illiteracy in the Arab world, discrimination against women and efforts to create a better business environment.

But the issue of democratic reform is a sensitive subject among Arab governments – which are mostly autocratic and have been long criticised for providing their 270 million people with little or no voice.

Islamic activists and media in Morocco denounced the conference earlier this week as an “indignity” and “a humiliation of the Moroccan people”.

Some Arab leaders, including Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, have accused the United States of pursuing a hidden agenda at the talks.

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said the conference would produce a declaration that would focus on settling the crisis in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.