Following today's opening of the exhibition, a one-day conference is being held on Thursday 9 May, on the theme of space and advanced technologies. The speakers will be Mr André Azoulay, Advisor to the King of Morocco, Mr Mouslim Kabbaj, Director of the CRTS, Mr Isaac Revah, CNES Director of International Relations, and Mr Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA's Associate Director for Strategy, Planning and International Policy.

ESA maintains close relations with several Arab countries, notably Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt, and has set up various cooperation arrangements, in the area of remote sensing in particular.

Projects using data from ESA's Earth observation satellites ERS-1 and ERS-2 have been conducted with a number of specialised bodies in Arab countries.

The CRTS in Morocco has carried out a project assessing the use of ERS-1 data for the purposes of soil humidity monitoring and land use mapping. Another project, also yielding very interesting results, has been conducted with the Institut d'Electronique d'Alger, its purpose being to assess the usefulness of optical images to the study of desertification in the Sahara Atlas in Algeria.

ESA's ERS-1 satellite was launched in 1991, ERS-2 in 1995. The Agency is carrying on its Earth observation programme by developing Envisat, which will be launched in 1999, thus maintaining continuity of data and associated services until about 2005.