World change sought

World change sought

ANKARA (AFP): The foreign ministers of eight Islamic countries will meet in Istanbul on Jan. 4 with the aim of creating a new world, Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan said yesterday.

The conference comes amid increasing U.S. concern at moves by Erbakan -- modern Turkey's first Islamist premier -- to boost the country's ties with Islamic countries such as Iran and Libya.

Iran will join Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Nigeria and Turkey at the meeting dubbed D-8 -- "D" for developing countries -- a deliberate echo of the G-7 title of the gathering of the world's seven most industrialized nations.

The meeting will lead to a presidential summit in Turkey in March "to announce to the world the creation of a global force," Erbakan told a meeting of his Welfare party, according to the Anatolia news agency.

"After the D-8 has been established, we will sit down with the G-7 around the table to set out the foundations of a new world, 50 years after World War II," he added.