The new group, to be coordinated by Richard Tremayne-Smith (United Kingdom), will consider proposals made by delegations and groups to amend the draft declaration and review the draft document on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis. It will then report back to the plenary.

At its previous meeting last Thursday, the plenary had referred proposals from the "Group of 77" developing countries and China, as well as from Chile, China and Morocco to its drafting group. Today, Conference President U.R. Rao (India) explained that after meeting twice, the drafting group felt that the proposals involved issues that were substantive in nature and should be considered in another forum.

The representative of the Russian Federation proposed establishing the working group. The representatives of India, Chile, Australia, Ecuador (speaking for the Latin American and Caribbean Group), China, Egypt, Germany, South Africa, Romania, Cuba, Spain, Canada, Sri Lanka, Libya and Switzerland also spoke about the new group.

Also this afternoon, the Conference decided to appoint Carlos Jose Prazeres Campelo (Brazil) as Vice-Chairman and Rapporteur of Main Committee II, to replace Luiz Gylvan Meira Filho (Brazil), who was unable to fulfill his duties.

At the outset of the meeting, the Conference observed a moment of silence in honor of the late King Hassan II of Morocco. The Conference President spoke, as did Morocco's Ambassador.

Iraq's Ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Ali Al-Mashat, appealed to the Conference to call for lifting of the sanctions being imposed upon his country, which had paralyzed its space programme.

Iraqi scientists were unable to follow or train in the rapid developments in this realm. Delivering his statement in the context of the Conference's general exchange of views, he stressed the need for a framework for international cooperation through which developing countries could obtain data and know-how to use space science in areas such as agriculture and disaster management.

UN Space Reports at SpaceDaily