Bruxelles, 16/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - During the seminar of 14 and 15 January in Naples between the central banks of the Eurosystem and the countries of the Mediterranean region, the president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, said that there is potential for regular and active dialogue in the region (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.8). Mr Trichet recalled that similar meetings have taken place with the central banks of the twelve acceding or candidate countries, of Latin America and South East Asia. Similar events are foreseen with “other neighbouring countries such as Russia”, he announced. An ECB and Bank of Italy document for the seminar notes the growing importance of the euro as a reference currency for these countries and the problems entailed for most of them by the volatility of the euro-dollar exchange rate.