The 7th meeting of the council of foreign ministers of the D-8 member states opened in Tehran Monday with remarks of Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi.
Kharrazi said in his opening speech that for the D-8 to play its due role in the present world, the group must be transformed into an efficient and effective forum among selected developing economies.
"We must encourage our commission to continue to address the challenge of rapid change and adapting to them through formulation of necessary recommendations," he added.
D-8, an economic forum, groups Iran, Turkey, Malaysia, Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nigeria and its secretariat is located in Turkey.
The Tehran summit is due to be held with the participation of heads of state and government of Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt and Nigeria.
The council of ministers is meeting to set the summit's agenda and leading businessmen from the member countries also attended a forum on the eve of the summit.
D-8 was founded in 1998 by the initiative of former Turkish Prime Minister Necmeddin Erbakan to boost economic cooperation among Muslim states with more than 600 million population.
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
