D-8 opens economic summit

D-8 opens economic summit

Agencies
Tehran

The economic summit of Islamic states known as the Developing
Eight countries (D-8) opened on Wednesday with leaders including
Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri saying they would
seek to strengthen cooperation and push toward creation of a
common market.

The D-8 member states are Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran,
Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.

At the initiative of former Turkish prime minister Necmeddin
Erbakan, the D-8 was founded in 1997 to represent the eight
developing Islamic countries. It was intended as a counterweight
to the Group of Seven (G-7) industrialized nations.

D-8 countries have a combined population of more than 800
million and an area of 8 million square kilometers.

But the D-8 summit was marred by an accident in which hundreds
of people killed.

The accident occurred on Wednesday when runaway rail wagons
loaded with an explosive cocktail of sulphur, petrol and
fertiliser derailed and blew up in northeast Iran, local
officials said.

The cargo exploded as firefighters, watched by curious
villagers, were attempting to douse a blaze which broke out after
the string of dozens of wagons came off the tracks at Khayyam
station.

"Up to now, accurate reports say 182 people are dead and 350
injured," Mohammad Maghdori, a deputy governor general of
Khorassan province and chief of emergencies, told state
television.