More than 50 countries, as well as international bodies, will attend a counter-terrorism conference in Saudi Arabia from February 5 to 8, the official SPA news agency said on Monday. Besides looking at the causes of terrorism, delegates will also discuss the relation between terrorism and money laundering and arms and drug trafficking, SPA added.

Fifteen Arab countries will be represented in the conference, with Libya and Iraq the main Arab absentees. Riyadh announced in December it had recalled its ambassador to Libya and asked the Libyan ambassador to leave over an alleged plot by Tripoli to kill Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.

The United Nations, European Union, Arab League and African Union will be represented, while countries such as the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany have said they will take part. Since May 2003, Saudi Arabia has been battling a wave of terror by presumed extremists who have killed more than 100 people in a spate of bombings and shootings.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005