In Tunis

Tunisia's President Ben Ali receives Malta's deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, from Tunis Press:

..At the end of the meeting, Mr. Borg said he had an excellent and constructive talk with the President of the Republic, stressing the Head of State's wide knowledge of the developments of the situation in the Mediterranean region, and in Malta, and the good memories he keeps from his visit to the country in 2005.

He also said that the meeting had allowed him to brief the Head of State on the purport of his meetings in Tunis, and to review the issue of European-Arab dialogue in which Malta takes special interest.

The meeting, he added, had also turned on the issue of illegal emigration and the need to address this problem not only through security measures, but also by other means including the creation of development projects and the establishment of legal emigration channels.

"Malta, he emphasised, takes deep interest in President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali's initiatives regarding youths and means to encourage them to participate in public life, and particularly political life." The meeting was attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Malta's ambassador in Tunis.