Brussels, 04/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - The General-Secretariat of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) welcome in a press release the invitation extended by the Austrian EU Presidency to hold an EU/GCC Joint Council and Ministerial Meeting in Brussels, in May. On this occasion, the GCC delegation in Brussels would like to emphasise the positive results of the summit of Gulf countries on 18 and 19 December in Abu Dhabi regarding relations with the EU (see EUROPE 9097). The press release from the Abu Dhabi summit mentions that the Gulf countries are looking forward to concluding negotiations on a free trade agreement with the EU and to signing the agreement as soon as possible. The GCC delegation also points out that, as in the press release after their ministerial meeting on 5 April 2005 in Manama, the EU and the Gulf countries had confirmed the importance of concluding negotiations on the free trade agreement as swiftly as possible and “preferably before the end of 2005”. For this reason, the EU and the GCC technical teams met recently to settle the rest of the subjects in their agenda and to finalise the text of the Free Trade Agreement, the press release states, pointing out that it is hoped the agreement will be signed during the first half of 2006.