PARIS: Group of 20 finance ministers meeting in Paris should offer their support to Tunisia and Egypt as they move towards democracy, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday.
"In the shorter term, France will ask you to be ready to join forces to accompany our Tunisian and Egyptian friends on the road to democracy, in making economic and social progress," Sarkozy said during an address to the ministers.
"A successful transition in Tunisia and Egypt will also be a success for the G20," he said ahead of a formal dinner with ministers and central bankers.
Most Western leaders have welcomed the popular wave sweeping North Africa and the Middle East, but analysts are nervous of how further civil unrest, economic disruption and a surge in migration will affect the rest of the world.
German Deputy Finance Minister Joerg Asmussen told Reuters earlier on Friday that the ministers, who will go over a draft communique put together by their negotiating teams, would "very likely" address the situation in the Arab world.
France, the formal colonial power in Tunisia and an influential voice in the Middle East with big economic interests there, has already voiced its hope of seeing stable democracies take root in both countries after popular uprisings brought down authoritarian rulers there.
