World Bulletin / News Desk 

Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Saturday the current period was suitable for spreading Islamic civilization's knowledge, experiences and Islam's peaceful character across the globe. 

Delivering the opening remarks of a ministerial meeting of the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation (COMCEC) of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Istanbul, Gul said that "we must make use of the COMCEC platform on the 25th anniversary of its foundation as a platform that has proved its success". 

We must note that the COMCEC is not much effective in timely implementation of projects and in reaching its potential, Gul said.

In order to assist COMCEC to become a more effective and strong body, we must strengthen certain mechanisms and prepare a visionary document that could be implemented, Gul said. 

Middle East 

"Turkey follows a comprehensive and integrated policy through Middle East. Israeli-Palestine conflict based on the issues in the region. For peace, it must be solved." 

"Turkey believes that the solution is dialogue and negotiations, and calls to avoid acts to rise tensions." 

Turkey has also continued to call to solve division between Palestinians through dialogue and talks, avoiding the acts which can risk future of Palestine, he said, te country share the opinion that such devision will harm the establishment of future Palestine state.

Gul said that efforts shoul be intensified on the other conflicts in the region such as Israel-Syria and Israel-Lebanon. 

Economic Crises 

The global financial crisis and international issues is expected to be discussed during the summit. 

The Summit is held for the first time to mark the 25th anniversary of COMCEC. 

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, Syrian Head of State Basher Assad and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir are among the leaders who are expected to attend. Western states have pressed on Turkey over Bashir. 
The Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (COMCEC) was established at the Third Islamic Summit Conference held in Mecca/Taif in 1981. COMCEC became operational at the Fourth Islamic Summit in 1984, with the election of the President of the Republic of Turkey to its chairmanship. 

The mandate of the COMCEC is to draw up programmes for joint action, coordinate and follow-up the activities pertaining to economic cooperation within the framework of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). 

The 25th Session of the COMCEC (Economic Summit), which will be convened at the level of the Heads of State of the member countries, is going to take cognizance of the past 25 years of activities of the COMCEC as well as consider further expectations and policy guidelines for future cooperation among the member countries.