Brussels, 19/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - The conference of the countries neighbouring Iraq, due to be held at Sharm-El-Sheikh in Egypt on 4 May, will be an “important step” in returning the country to stability, said US Defense Secretary Robert Gates this week. On Wednesday, Mr Gates was in Cairo for a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to discuss preparations for the above conference to which the European Union has also been invited. The EU did not attend the first conference in Baghdad at the end of March. “The Commission has been officially invited to participate in the Iraq conference in Sharm-El-Sheikh,” the spokeswoman for External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told EUROPE. The US defence secretary said that anything neighbouring countries could do to support the Iraqi government would be a bonus. In a speech to the American chamber of commerce in Cairo, he presented a sombre vision, were Iraq to collapse. “The consequences of the failure of the Iraqi states and the chaos (in Iraq) will have a negative impact on the security and prosperity of every country in the Middle East and the Gulf Region,” he said. Iran has yet to confirm that it will attend the meeting in Sharm-El-Sheikh, but its Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, on a visit to Damascus, said “Iran supports all the results obtained in conferences of countries neighbouring Iraq” and “hopes that the neighbouring countries will continue their efforts to help stabilise the country ravaged by conflict”. (fb)