Hidden Nook

"We did not overlook some of the challenges that we are all facing in the region and uppermost in that list of challenges is the situation between the Israelis and the Palestinians."

"But we cannot ignore the fact that reform has to go on ... A child who is in need of an education and will not be a contributing member of society without that education, needs that education now," he said.

"Now is not the time to argue about the pace of democratic reform or whether economic reform must precede political reform," Powell told delegates from nearly 30 countries.

"All of us confront the daily threat of terrorism. To defeat the murderous extremists in our midst we must work together to address the causes of despair and frustration that extremists exploit for their own ends," he said.

Photo by Abed Omar Qusini/Reuters

Secretary of State Colin Powell on December 11, 2004 said Middle Eastern economic and political reform would help defeat terrorism but many Arabs dismissed his call and demanded an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict. With continued violence in U.S.-occupied Iraq and the Palestinian question unresolved, the one-day 'Forum for the Future' conference in Morocco was viewed by many in the Middle East as U.S. meddling even though American officials insist change must come from within the region. A Palestinian boy holds an election poster of jailed presidential candidate Marwan Barghouthi near the West Bank city of Nablus, December 10.