12/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - Italy has, during the meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives on Wednesday, put forward the problem of the negotiations underway in the OECD Development Assistance Committee concerning the untying of aid aimed at Least Developed Countries (LDC), by hoping that the EU does its utmost in order to contribute towards the adopting of a recommendation from the DAC on this issue, given that, after years of very intensive negotiations, the parties seem close to an agreement (also thanks to the recent efforts made by the French Delegation, it notes). Italy, while noting that the European Commission is has been recently circulating a discussion non paper that illustrates the difficulties it will have in implementing the measure put forward in the DAC draft recommendation, draws attention to the "fundamental problem", that of the non discrimination of OECD countries which are not members of the EU (it cites Japan, but also the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand).