3 June, 2007..... Assistant Foreign Minister for the American and Organisation of American States Affairs was assigned by Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit to conduct a tour in several Latin American countries during the first half of the current month. The tour will include Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. The Assistant Foreign Minister is expected to deliver messages from the Foreign Minister to his counterparts in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, and he will also head Egypt's delegation in the political and economic consultations round in the three countries and hold a series of meetings with government officials and parliamentarians to tackle means of boosting the various aspects of their bilateral relations particularly in the political, economic, cultural and scientific fields. The political consultations will also include exchanging viewpoints concerning the most important international and regional issues, particularly those regarding the Middle East peace efforts, the Palestinian issue and the situation in Iraq, Somalia and dealing with the situation in Sudan, and the developments of the Iranian Nuclear file as well as the ongoing developments in Lebanon, in addition to the UN reform efforts. The consultations will also confirm means of boosting cooperation with the aforementioned countries on various regional and international levels. The Assistant Foreign Minister's tour is the second of its kind to be conducted   to Latin America upon the Ministers directives during the first half of this year. Ambassador Seif El Nasr has conducted a similar visit last April which included Brazil, Mexico, Cuba and Panama, and this embodies Egypt's keenness on intensifying relations with the Latin American countries, which also show reciprocal interest which was demonstrated in the visits conducted recently by the Salvadorian President's and the Peruvian deputy Foreign Minister visits to Egypt. Those visits contribute to maintaining the historical and good relations between Egypt and those countries and both sides look forward to enhancing these relations.