Brussels, 28/05/2008 (Agence Europe) - Foreign ministers from the Arab countries on the Mediterranean discussed the proposed Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) in Cairo on 24 May. Egypt, currently coordinator of this group of countries which are members of the Barcelona process, has been detailed to prepare a document setting out “several ideas” about the Union, to be presented on 9-10 June at the meeting of the monitoring committee meeting in Portoroz, Slovenia. The high ranking officials who make up this committee will have to find a common position by then. Differences remain over who is to hold the post of secretary general, where the Union is to sit and the powers the joint structure is to hold, said an Arab diplomat. According to another diplomatic source, Egypt is also to make proposals for a review of working methods in the Barcelona process, which are felt to be too unilateral and imposed by the European Commission. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that Arab ministers welcomed the suggestion that the co-chairmanship of the UfM should be awarded to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. However, a diplomat said that this appointment might be linked to the duration of the rotating presidency of the group and probably not for the two years originally envisaged. (F.B.)