The Lebanese Minister of Transport of Public Works, Mr. Muhammad Safadi, sponsored today the inauguration of the ninth session of the UN-ESCWA Committee on Transport at the Holiday-Inn, Dunes Hotel in Verdun Street, Beirut, in the presence of participating delegations from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, the Syrian Arab Republic, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

The United Nations Under-Secretary-General and UN-ESCWA Executive Secretary, Ambassador Bader Omar AlDafa, and the Ambassador of Yemen Republic in Lebanon, Mr. Fayssal Amin Abu Ras, representing the Yemeni Government, signed this afternoon the agreement on the special arrangements for the UN-ESCWA 25th Ministerial Session, to be held on 26-29 May in Sana’a. The signing ceremony was attended by Mr. Khaled Galal AbldelHamid, the Secretary of the Commission, the UN-ESCWA Chief of the Administrative Service Division, Mr. David Iyamah, and Mr.

UN-ESCWA Executive Secretary, Bader Omar AlDafa, today undertook an official visit to the Kingdom of Bahrain, where he met with a number of senior officials, on top of whom was Crown Prince and General Commander of Bahrain’s Defense Force Sheikh Salman Bin Hamad Bin Issa Al Khalifa.

Talks focused on the many facets of cooperation with UN-ESCWA, as well as advisory and technical services on which UN-ESCWA and the Government of Bahrain collaborated in the past year.

Under the auspices of President Ali Abdallah Saleh, and the theme of "Financing for Development in the ESCWA region", the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, will be hosting the 25th Session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, (UN-ESCWA), on 26-29 May 2008 at the Movenpick Hotel.