Trade and foreign ministers from Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) bloc, Monday started a three-day meeting in Botswana to seek solutions to trade barriers ahead of a meeting with European Union counterparts later this week.

"This is a very important meeting," Botswana's permanent secretary for foreign affairs, Ernest Mpofu, told AFP.

"We are also going to negotiate other arrengements in the face of the stringent World Trade Organisation rules which make it difficult for developing countries to export their goods duty free into the EU.

"We also want to negotiate an arrangement which will at the same time enable us to keep some of the benefits we are presently enjoying," he added.

Representatives of the 79-member ACP group will from Thursday hold talks with top EU officials in Gaborone.

The talks will centre on issues raised by the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement signed in the Benin capital Cotonou on June 23, 2000 aimed at ironing out trade inequalities between the rich and developing nations.

In March, the EU approved aid worth €250-million to improve water supplies and sanitation in ACP countries.

The EU was due to release a second tranche, of €250-million, by May 2005. - Sapa-AFP