Tourism will be at the forefront of a summit between Arab and Latin American nations next April.

Officials expect that a memorandum of understanding aimed at promoting tourism will be signed at the second Summit of Arab and South American Countries (ASPA), scheduled to take place in Doha in April.

Foreign ministers from several South American and Arab countries are expected to be at the event, a news agency quoted Ibrahim Mohieldin, head of the Latin America Department at the League, as saying.

Mohieldin said tourism between the two areas is taking on more and more important dimensions.

The summit is also expected to discuss education, energy, food and other economic and trade issues. He said a Doha Declaration that would emerge from the summit would include a series of topics. “Apart from reviewing the progress made since the Brasília Summit (in 2005) - recalling the accomplishments, ministerial meetings and their results - the most important topics we plan to present will certainly be connected to the current global challenges,” he was quoted as saying.

Closer ties with South American nations were also discussed at last month’s Council of Arab Foreign Ministers meeting in Cairo. During the meeting in Cairo, dates were approved for a series of meetings between representatives of Arab and South American nations, which should take place in coming months, prior to the April summit.