Tripoli - The Libyan Authority for Tourist Development and the French Agency for tourist, observation, development and engineering (ODIT) concluded a contract here Monday for the development of tourist investment zones in the coastal regions of Tobrouk (far northeastern part) and Sabratha (West).

The Secretary of the Management Committee of the Libyan Tourist Development Authority, Dr Ali Fares Aweda, and the Director General of ODIT/France, Christian Mantei, signed the pact in the presence of the Libyan minister of Tourism, Ammar Latayef, and his French counterpart, L�on Bertrand, who is visiting Tripoli.

The agreement comes within the implementation of cooperation agreements between the two countries in tourism.

It aims at working out master plans focusing developments that can accommodate investors and tourist operators.

This is concretely about France's technical assistance aimed at promoting tourist investment zones in Libya through a strategy for the promotion of the zone located between Tobrouk and the Libyan- Egyptian border covering 180 km where more than 17 tourist investment zones were identified.

The second region targeted by the agreement is the one that stretches from the city of Sabratha, that boasts one of the biggest archaeological sites of the Roman civilisation in Libya, Tellil and Mellita over a distance of 20 km on the western coast.

Libyan tourist authorities explain this recourse to France's assistance thanks to the broad experience this country boasts in the field of the promotion of tourist zones, namely on the banks of the Mediterranean Sea, which host more than 70 million tourists annually.

In an interview with PANA after the signing ceremony, Libyan minister of tourism, Ammar Latayef, commended this agreement, whose implementation is expected to result in a greater development of the Libyan tourist sector.-panapress