Brussels, 04/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - As chair of the Kimberley Process in 2007, the European Commission admitted Liberia, on Friday, as a participant in the initiative to combat “conflict diamonds”. Liberia will henceforth be able to legally export its rough diamonds legally to other countries that are part of this system that certifies and controls the diamond industry and which is now composed of 46 members (equivalent to 72 countries in all, with the European Community counting as a single participant). “Liberia's admission into the Kimberley Process shows the confidence of the international community in Liberia's new path”, said Benita Ferrero-Waldner, External Relations Commissioner, in a press release. Her counterpart for development and humanitarian aid, Louis Michel, also welcomed this “formal recognition by the international community that the efforts deployed by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in the field of governance are producing the expected results”. After several missions on the spot between 2005 and 2007, it was noted that effective controls to meet the requirements of the Kimberley Process had been set in place, allowing an end to be put to the sanctions imposed by the United Nations for six years, due to the civil war, largely financed by contraband “blood diamonds” from Liberia and from the neighbouring Sierra Leone. The Côte d'Ivoire is the only country still subject to restrictions imposed by the United Nations on the trade in diamonds. (ab)