Senior officials meet to prepare for NAM summit in Sharm El Sheikh

Senior officials from over 140 countries began to meet here on Saturday to discuss the agenda and draft documents for the 15th Non-Aligned Movement ( NAM) summit due on July 15-16 in this Red Sea resort city, preparing for the movement's direction-taking summit in a new world situation, Xinhua reported.
  
The officials gathered at the Savoy Hotel to work out some basic documents for the summit, which will state the movement's stance in the current international context on major international and regional issues like the global financial crisis, the Middle East peace process, the Korean Peninsula and Iranian nuclear problems.
  
The summit, with a theme of "International Solidarity for Peace and Development," will focus on ways to reactivate NAM in the current world situation, address international hot-spots and difficult problems and protect interests of developing countries.
  
At the senior officials meeting, which runs through Saturday and Sunday, they will examine a report by the NAM Coordinating Bureau, establish a Political Committee and an Economic and Social Committee to draft the summit's final documents and other statements for a coming ministerial meeting to review, and adopt the report of the Preparatory Senior Officials Meeting.
  
The NAM heads of state and government are expected to approve the final documents at their summit scheduled for next Wednesday and Thursday.