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.