TEHRAN First Vice-President Hassan Habibi, heading a high-ranking delegation, left here Sunday morning for Dhaka to attend the second summit of the eight developing Islamic countries (D-8) to open today. Senior officials from Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Egypt and Bangladesh will also attend the summit. Prior to his departure, Habibi told IRNA that with appropriate planning the D-8 member countries can turn to cultural and industrial poles in the world.

Referring to great potentials in the D-8 member states, he said the member countries are large Muslim states enjoying economic, social and cultural development. On the agenda of the summit, Habibi said that implementation of approvals of the first D-8 summit held in Istanbul in June 1997, would be discussed in the second summit. Iran will propose the summit to make efforts to promote relations among the member states, he said adding that close ties between the member states would lead to further success of the group in implementation of the joint projects.