MINISTERS from France and the CFA franc zone began a meeting in the Equatorial Guinea capital Malabo on Tuesday at which they will discuss French efforts to reduce debt in the zone. The meeting was opened by Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema who called on France to help its African partners in the zone. The day-long meeting takes place amid the fears of African finance ministers that the CFA franc could be devalued when the French franc disappears from circulation in 2002, a fear French officials say is unfounded. The rate currently stands at 100 CFA francs to the French franc, after it was slashed by 50 percent in 1994. The members of the CFA zone are Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon, Chad, the Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and the Comoro Islands.