November 11, 2002	Monday	Ramazan 5, 1423

PARIS, Nov 10: The French Foreign Ministry has announced creation of a special Arab-language website, that can be accessed at: http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/arabe/index.html.

Until now, the only other languages in which the Quai d’Orsay communicated were French, English, German and Spanish.

In one of the first selections of communiques and articles specially-created for its Arab-language service, are included such subjects as a commentary on UN Security council resolution 1441, stories on French relations with Iraq, Yemen and Finland, a copy of Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin’s recent speech at Mohammed V University in Morocco, an interview he gave to French daily Le Figaro, a joint communique with Libya over the recent meeting of the Franco-Libyan joint commission, and a communique pertaining to the recent attack of a French oil tanker, the Limburg, off Yemen.

Creation of the new site follows the decision by French authorities to France to reorient its external TV broadcasts towards the Islamic world by possibly taking over control of Euronews, the Lyons-based Pan-European TV service, and this to allow it to accentuate its programming towards Muslims in the Middle East, Asia and North Africa.