Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Friday that Egypt was seeking to develop the roadmap peace plan in order to reach means of putting the plan into effect with a specific timetable, the official news agency MENA reported.

The top Egyptian diplomat made the remarks before leaving for Alicante in southeast Spain, where he would attend the Mediterranean Forum meeting along with foreign ministers from Spain, Algeria, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Morocco, Portugal, Turkey and Tunisia.

Libya, which has an observer status, is taking part in the forum for the first time.

Abul Gheit was quoted as saying that talks at the Mediterranean Forum meeting will focus on the situation in the Mideast, noting that the forum meeting would tackle Mideast issues including the Palestinian issue along with the situation in Lebanon and Syria.

He said that Spain had a certain view in this regard, asserting that Egypt would highlight the importance of pushing forward the Mideast peace process.

According to MENA, the forum meeting will address the Middle East peace process, especially the roadmap plan initiated by the international Quartet of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.

Launched in 2003, the roadmap peace plan was aimed to establish a viable Palestinian state living alongside Israel in peace by 2005.

Egypt, as a regional power long since playing a mediating role between Israel and the Palestinians, has since May urged the roadmap plan to be revised.

Talks of the forum will also take up the dialogue among civilizations, said Abul Gheit, warning of the dangers of a clash of civilizations.

He called for peaceful coexistence and mutual understanding among various civilizations, a matter that would positively affect future relations.

About the Darfur crisis and Sudan's expulsion of the United Nations envoy, Abul Gheit said that the Sudanese government rejected certain statements by UN envoy Jan Pronk.

He said he believed that the UN will send another envoy to Sudan for cooperation between the international organization and the Sudanese government to continue.

He stressed that there was no place for deterioration in UN- Sudanese relations in light of the current situation in Darfur.

The attendees of the forum could reach an agreement if negotiated on the basis of keeping the African troops in Darfur and reinforcing them with UN forces, according to Abul Gheit.

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry on Oct. 22 ordered Pronk to leave the country in three days. Earlier, the Sudanese army announced that Pronk was "not welcomed in this country for his flagrant interference in the army's affairs."

The Sudanese side also accused the UN top envoy in Sudan of launching a psychological war on the Sudanese army by spreading fabricated false information doubting the army's capability to maintain the security and stability of the country.

The UN Security Council adopted resolution 1706 on Aug. 31, calling for the deployment of more than 20,000 international peacekeepers to replace the 7,800 AU forces in Darfur.

But the Sudanese government has rejected the mission transfer, saying it was a violation of Sudan's sovereignty and an effort by the West to re-colonize the African oil producing country.

Egypt has been firmly supporting Sudan's stance on the deployment of UN forces, insisting any deployment should first get approval from the Sudanese government.

Source: Xinhua