Their Majesties King Abdullah II and Queen Rania Al Abdullah began on Wednesday a working visit to Mexico where His Majesty will take part in the International Conference on Financing for Development which is organized by the UN in the city of Monterrey.

King Abdullah is expected to deliver a speech in the opening session of the conference which is held for world leaders.

The conference which will be attended by a number of world leaders as well as representatives of international economic and financial organizations and institutions will discuss problems facing the financing of development, fighting poverty, achieving comprehensive developmental goals that that are based on genuine partnership among developed and developing countries as well as prospects of increasing financial and technical cooperation for developmental purposes. The conference will also discuss possibilities of increasing aid to poor countries.

King Abdullah will meet on the sideline of the conference US President George Bush, the Mexican and French presidents, UN Secretary general, head of the European Union and heads of a number of participating delegations.

His Majesty began his visit to Mexico with a meeting with the Executive Director of the International monetary Fund (IMF) Michael Coller and discussed with him relations between Jordan and the IMF as well as efforts being exerted to ease the burden of Jordan`s external debt. The king highly valued the IMF`s efforts in this regard.

Talks also covered steps taken to implement the economic and social reform programme as well as increasing the level of health care and education in all governorates.

Coller affirmed that the economic growth in Jordan which stood at 4.2 per cent last year reflects King Abdullah`s keenness to improve the standards of living of citizens and enhance economic stability in the Kingdom despite the political and regional challenges.