June 7, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 6, 1424

BISHKEK, June 6: The representatives of 10 countries from Central Asia and its environs will meet here next week to discuss the reconstruction of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan’s foreign ministry said on Friday.

The Wednesday’s meeting will focus on the “formation of an action plan for Afghanistan’s reconstruction up to 2008,” the ministry said in a written statement.

The Economic Cooperation Organization talks will be attended by foreign ministers or their deputies from Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Turkey, the statement said.

Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev and Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Abdullatif Sener will chair the talks. While a number of participants have only limited financial means to help out Afghanistan, many have been affected by the ongoing instability in that country, especially as it accounts for around 70 per cent of world heroin production.

Western countries and institutions have long urged greater cooperation between countries in this volatile region and Turkey has tried to draw on its historical ties with Central Asia to exercise a degree of leadership.

The 10-member grouping last met in Istanbul in October.—AFP