*EPF310 11/17/2004
New Web Site Launched on G8 Forum for the Future Initiative
(Morocco to host first forum meeting in Rabat December 10-11) (270)

The State Department's Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP) has launched a new Web site to report on the Group of Eight's (G8) Forum for the Future initiative. The Forum for the Future brings together government, business, and community leaders from the G8 nations and the countries of the broader Middle East and North Africa to address issues of economic and political development.

The G8 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Russia) called for the initiative during the G8's Sea Island Summit in June in order to provide "genuine cooperation" with people in the countries of the broader Middle East and North Africa working to achieve greater freedom, prosperity, and democracy. "Successful reform depends on the countries in the region, and change should not and cannot be imposed from outside," according to G8. "Each country is unique and their diversity should be respected."

Representatives from the G8 and Middle East and North African countries laid the groundwork for the forum's establishment during a series of meetings in New York in September 2004. The Kingdom of Morocco announced November 9 that it will host the first forum meeting in Rabat December 10-11.

Morocco's official Web site for the conference can be found at http://www.maec.gov.ma/future

IIP's Web site, which will contain all documents related to the United States' activities in support of the Forum initiative, can be found at http://usinfo.state.gov/mena/middle_east_north_africa/forum_for_the_future.html

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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