/ 5 July 2000

BELGIAN PM TO VISIT SA

BELGIAN Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt will visit South Africa on Thursday and Friday for talks with President Thabo Mbeki on the situation in central Africa and the Great Lakes region. Verhofstadt would also call on former president Nelson Mandela to discuss the peace efforts in the Great Lakes region. He will be accompanied by Belgium’s Deputy Foreign Minister Louis Michel, who will hold separate discussions his South African counterpart Aziz Pahad.