U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell met in Washington today with Tunisian Foreign Minister Habib Ben Yahia for "a good meeting" on latest developments in the Middle East as well as bilateral and regional issues, the State Department said. The two foreign ministers "started with issues of democracy and upcoming elections in Tunisia, but also then [discussed] the broader issue of democracy in the region," spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters. Tunisia, as the host of the Arab League summit earlier this year, worked hard on the Arab League proposals and was "a good contributor" to the meeting on development and reform in the Arab world that was held with 28 counterparts last Friday on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly, Boucher noted. Powell and Ben Yahia also discussed issues concerning North Africa and "talked a lot about the Israeli-Palestinian situation-the desire on all our parts to make progress there," Boucher said.
