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APEC Summit Opens Friday
-21 Leaders to Give Impetus to Stalled Doha Trade Talks


PUSAN _ Leaders from 21 Pacific Rim economies will convene the first meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit here Friday under a main theme of ``Advancing Freer Trade’’ in the region.

The first meeting of the two-day summit, known as the Retreat, will open at the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center (BEXCO), the organizers said Thursday.

After the meeting, the leaders will meet with the APEC Business Advisory Council to hear their recommendations on key international issues such as ways of reviving the World Trade Organization (WTO)’s so-called Doha Round of trade negotiations.

President Roh Moo-hyun will hold a dinner for the APEC leaders and some 1,000 other delegates and economic leaders participating in this year’s APEC forum that opened in this southern port city on Nov. 12, at the BEXCO, according to the organizers.

Among those to be present at the dinner are U.S. President George W. Bush, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and their spouses.

Tomorrow, the second APEC Retreat will be held at a specially designed facility, the Nurimaru APEC House, on a nearby islet, under the theme of ``a safe and transparent Asia-Pacific region.’’ Nurimaru is a newly coined Korean word, meaning the pinnacle of the world.

# Koreatimes.
- By Kim Sung-jin