Brussels, 18/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - European Commissioner for Enterprise and the Information Society Erkki Liikanen, will meet with Ministers, Regulators, Private Sector and Civil Society representatives from Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean in Lima (Peru) on 20-21 July 2003 at a high-level forum. The objective of this forum is to discuss ways to consolidate their partnership aimed at building an open and inclusive Information Society in these regions. This meeting is a follow-up of the ministerial meeting held in April 2002 in Seville, where the @LIS co-operation programme was formally launched. Discussions will also focus on issues related with the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) that will take place in December in Geneva. This Forum will also debate ways to strengthen the participation of Latin American and Caribbean organisations in the Commission's IST Research and Development programme, taking advantage of the new financing possibilities under the international co-operation section of the sixth framework programme.