Foreign ministers meet to prepare for regional conference

Foreign ministers from Africa's Great Lakes region began a two-day meeting on Tuesday in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to prepare for a regional summit on peace and security. The ministers are drawn from the core countries of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, an initiative of the UN and the African Union (AU) that is aimed at finding a lasting solution to the region's social and political problems. In a statement, the office of Ibrahima Fall, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to the Great Lakes, reported on Monday that the ministers were expected to come up with a final version of a draft declaration. The announcement is the outcome of three previous meetings of regional preparatory committees, the last of which was held in Kampala, Uganda, last week. Fall's office said the ministers would then submit the final version of the draft declaration to the heads of state for adoption and signature on Saturday, the last day of their two-day summit. Foreign ministers from Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia are attending the ministerial meeting. The international conference on peace, security, democracy and development in the Great Lakes region was proposed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and is co-chaired by the UN and the AU. Fall's office said its objective was to find a lasting solution to the multiple and endemic problems facing the region and to create a conducive environment for security, stability, reconstruction and development.