Mubarak, Spanish PM discuss trade, region

Egyptian-Spanish talks: President Hosni Mubarak (R) during his talks with Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in Cairo yesterday. Zapatero is on an official tour of the Middle East that will also take him to Saudi Arabia.
BOOSTING Egypt-Spain cooperation in tourism, transport, industry, informa-tion technology and textiles, as well as regional issues of mutual concern

were the main themes of talks between President Hosni Mubarak and Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodr?guez Zapatero in Cairo yester-day.Their talks also focused on trade and industry, especially on how to benefit from the Spanish expertise in developing the Egyptian railway systems in Egypt, the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported."Spain looks forward to boosting ties with Egypt in all fields," MENAquoted Zapatero as saying, during a press conference with Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif after talks with Mubarak.He added that he had discussed with Mubarak the Middle East peace process, Darfur, Iraq, Yemen and Iran's nuclear pro-gramme. Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit, meanwhile, conferred with his Spanish counterpart Miguel Angel Moratinos in Cairo over the effects of the global financial crisis on both countries."The two ministers discussed bilateral eco-nomic cooperation,” Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said.He added that the talks came as Spain would soon take over (in 2010) the presidency of the Euro-Med Union, which is currently co-chaired by Egypt and France. Egyptian-Spanish trade hit 2.2 billion euros in 2008, in addition to the huge Spanish invest-ment in liquefied natural gas in Egypt.