WASHINGTON, Dec 7 (AFP) - The United States hopes to energize controversial plans to push sweeping reform in the Middle East and North Africa when US Secretary of State Colin Powell attends a meeting of senior regional officials this week in Morocco.
But with soaring anti-American sentiment and resistance to change in many of the countries targeted by the so-called Broader Middle East and North Africa (BMENA) initiative, Washington has been forced to scale back the initial, ambitious scope of the project.
Instead of leading a high-profile campaign to press for sweeping democratic reforms in Arab and Muslim nations from Mauritius to Pakistan, the United States has delegated a much more modest effort to Italy, Turkey and Yemen.
In fact, the nascent "Democracy Assistance Dialogue" that those three countries are leading is expected to be the only major political component of the "Forum for the Future" conference that Powell will co-chair with Moroccan Foreign Minister Mohamed Benaissa in Rabat on Saturday.
Rather, the focus of the foreign and finance ministers from more than 25 countries participating in the forum will be money: microcredit, creation of a 100-million-dollar regional fund to make small business loans, encouraging foreign investment and improving climates for entrepreneurs.
A literacy initiative and a project to educate young business leaders are also in the cards.
Despite an emphasis on finance and education, Powell said he believed the conference may boost interest in governmental reforms that are haltingly underway in a handful of Arab and Muslim nations.
"I hope ... we will come to an understanding of the need for reform and modernization in the Broader Middle East and North Africa region," he said last week as he prepared for what may be his last trip abroad before leaving office.
"I hope that we can come to some understanding of how the industrial world ... can help the nations of the regime as they move down the reform path," he said.
However, the democracy dialogue being organized by Italy, Turkey and Yemen -- which aims to bring regional leaders together with democracy advocates to discuss possible reforms -- is a far cry from the grander concept first envisioned by Washington.
US officials had wanted to use the liberation of Iraq as the centerpiece of an intense project to promote economic, social and political liberalization across the Middle East.
That idea, championed by neo-conservatives in US President George W. Bush's administration, met heavy resistance when word of what was then known as the "Greater Middle East Initiative" emerged in February.
The plan sparked anger throughout the Arab and Muslim world where many suspected it was a tool to impose Western values on traditional societies in the aftermath of the US-led invasion of Iraq.
It also drew concern from some in Europe -- particularly French President Jaques Chirac -- who argued against the proselytizing of democracy and those who feared it would further delay a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Faced with the outcry of opposition, Washington altered the proposal and by the time it was renamed BMENA and given a lukewarm endorsement by the Group of Eight industrialized nations at a US-hosted summit in June, it stipulated that any reforms must be homegrown.
It also stressed the importance of Israeli-Palestinian peace as a catalyst for reform, that Iraqi sovereignty had to be respected and stated repeatedly that change would not and could not be mandated from outside.
With January elections set for both the Palestinian territories and Iraq, US officials have expressed cautious optimism that a more conducive atmosphere for reform may soon envelop the region.
Discussion has continued between Arab nations on their own calls for at least limited reform and steps toward liberalization have already been taken in Bahrain, Jordan and Morocco among others.
Both Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which declined Bush's invitation to join the G8 discussion on the initiative, are expected to attend the Rabat conference and Morocco expects representatives of Iran and Syria to participate.
Still, suspicion persists and at a mass protest in Morocco last week, some demonstrators flayed the conference as a US-orchestrated plot to dominate Arabs and Muslims.
To counter that, US officials have been insisting for some time that the initiative is benign and will not force anything on anyone.
Powell repeated that mantra last week. "Every country has to go down its own path as they design that path but we can help them on its journey," he said.
12/07/2004 12:01 GMT - AFP