Prime ministers of Malaysia, Turkey, Egypt and Lebanon called for dialogue yesterday to solve regional and world conflicts on the sidelines of a key Mideast economic forum currently underway in Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh.

 

Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Egypt's Ahmed Nazef and Lebanon's Fouad Siniora made the call at a debate session on the fringe of the World Economic Forum (WEF) on the Middle East, which started Saturday.

 

The four prime ministers, all from Muslim-dominated countries, agreed during the session titled "Enhancing Dialogue, Strengthening Cooperation" that Muslim countries should do a better job in communicating with the non-Muslim world, with one another and with groups in their own nations in order to help solve regional and world conflicts, according to a press release.

 

The four leaders also said that dialogue was the way forward for resolving the region's thorniest problems, such as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the role of women in Islam.

 

Lebanese Premier Siniora, whose country has witnessed strained relations with neighboring Syria, said that the region should look at "a shared education" as a kind of dialogue to be invested in.

 

Egyptian Prime Minister Nazef, on his part, called the Islamic world's engagement with the global media a "failure in the system" that must be fixed so that the majority voices in Islam preaching moderation could be heard.

 

Nazef also criticized Egypt's Islamic universities for not taking "a more probative role" in communicating Islam's peaceful mission.

 

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan called on regional leaders to engage in more dialogue with Syria, adding that Turkey's positive foreign relations came as a result from creating a culture of dialogue with all its neighbors.

 

His Malaysian counterpart Badawi also attached great importance to dialogue as a means to bridge various cultures, saying "such dialogues are not a monologue and people listen to one another with no one marginalized or out of the circle in their efforts to move toward a common progressive future."

 

The three-day forum under the theme of "The Promise of a New Generation" is held in Egypt for the first time.

 

The annual conference is the fourth of its kind and the three previous meetings were all held in Jordan.

 

Some 1,200 political and business leaders from 46 countries attend the forum, including US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

 

The forum, modeled on the WEF's annual meeting at the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos, is seen as a platform for regional and world leaders to discuss economic reforms, unemployment and regional stability and peace in the Middle East.

 

Incorporated as a foundation in 1971, the Geneva-based WEF is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

 

(Xinhua News Agency May 22, 2006)