OIC conference to discuss events in Libya, changes in N Africa.

ASTANA, June 28 (Itar-Tass) - Developments in Libya and historic
changes in the countries of North Africa will be the focal points of the
38th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of
the Islamic Conference /OIC/ that opens in Kazakhstan's capital Astana
Tuesday.
OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said on the eve of the
conference the organization plays a key role in the international contact
group on Libya and it provides assistance to the refugees fleeing the
crisis-stricken country.
The international agenda of the conference includes 'the Palestinian
issue' and the pressing problems related to Afghanistan, Somalia and other
parts of the world, Dr Ihsanoglu said.
The OIC says at its official website the Astana conference has special
significance, as it is the last event of this level before the
mid-September session of the UN General Assembly, which is expected to
consider a recognition of the independent Palestinian State.
In connection with this the Astana forum will offer an opportunity for
OIC to coordinate its position on the issue
Also, a contact group on the situation in the Indian state of Jammu
and Kashmir is expected to meet as part of the conference.
One more important block of issues for discussion relates to the
economy and trade relations between the OIC member-states.
The session is due to consider a change of the organization's name in
the light of a considerable expansion of the spheres of its activity. The
new name it is going to assume is the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Pursuant to the change of the official name, the OIC will also adopt a
new emblem.
At the conference, the rotating chairmanship of the Council will go
over to Kazakhstan from Tajikistan.
"Kazakhstan hopes to make a big contribution to the OIC activity in
the course of its term of presidency, in the first place, from the angle
of modernization of the OIC course and the importance of adapting the
organization as such to a new reality," Foreign Minister Yerzhan
Kazykhanov said.
"Development of trade and economic cooperation will become a crucial
element of our term of rotating presidency," he said.
Upon the end of the session, the participating countries will issue
more than a hundred resolutions on a broad array of problems that the
Islamic world puts high on its political agenda.
Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry says a total of 154 delegations have
confirmed their participation in the conference.
"There'll be about 40 participants in the rank of ministers or deputy
ministers," an official at the ministry said.
Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev is going address the
gathering before its opening ceremony.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference is the world'
s
second largest
intergovernmental organization after the UN. It has membership of 57
states located on four continents.
The Organization "is the collective voice of the Muslim world and
ensuring to safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the
spirit of promoting international peace and harmony among various people
of the world," the OIC official website says.
The OIC Charter also stipulates that all the member-states should
"settle their disputes through peaceful means and refrain from use or
threat of use of force in their relations."
Russia where 20% population is Islamic has an observer status at the
OIC.