PARITY NEEDED IN WEST-ISLAM RELATIONS, FRATTINI SAYS

PARITY NEEDED IN WEST-ISLAM RELATIONS, FRATTINI SAYS

(ANSA) - Marrakech, November 3 - The key to success in relations between the West and the Arabic Muslim world ''can be summed up in one word: parity,'' Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on Tuesday.

In an address opening the Forum for the Future - attended by foreign ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) and Middle East countries, as well as representatives from the Arab League and civil groups - Frattini added that ''we need to forget a time when there were those who made proposals while all others needed to do was accept or reject these proposals''.

What is needed now, he explained ''is parity in leadership'' which will ''allow us to do more and better and place the human element at the center of our policy decisions in order to unite rather than divide us''.

After stressing the need to support cultural projects, because ''extremism cannot grow where there is mental openness, Frattini proposed creating an ''education network'' between G8 countries and those in the Middle East which allows for ''greater collaboration between universities, student exchanges and, on the model of the Forum for the Future, a forum for Education''.

On the sidelines of the forum, Frattini will be holding a number of bilateral talks here including ones with United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Foreign Ministers Riyad Maliki of the Palestine National Authority and Fawzi Salloukh of Lebanon.