Brussels, 22/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - By celebrating the World Book and Copyright Day on 23 April 2003, UNESCO seeks to promote reading, the publishing industry and the protection of intellectual property through copyright. The date, 23 April, is a symbolic date for universal literature as not only is it the date when Cervantes, Shakespeare and Garcilaso de la Vega, the so-called "Inca", disappeared (the same year 1616), but it is also the day when other eminent writers such as Maurice Druon, Haldor K. Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Jospe Pla or Manuel Mejia Vallejo were either born or died. It was chosen by the General Conference of UNESCO held in Paris in 1995, a press release states. UNESCO's aim is to pay worldwide tribute to books and to authors and to encourage everyone, especially the young, to discover the pleasure of reading and to respect the irreplaceable contribution made by authors to social and cultural progress. Info: http: //http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/book/index.htlm