WASHINGTON - - In Seoul, Korea next November, the foreign ministers of more than one hundred nations will tackle the common problems of democratic nations -- how democracies can share their best practices and economic assistance, how to achieve regional cooperation, and how to maintain a healthy relationship with a free and independent press.

The occasion will be the second international conference of the Community of Democracies. The first conference was held in Warsaw in June 2000. 106 nations committed themselves to work together to strengthen the institutions of democracy people-to-people linkages. The Seoul conference is being organized by a group of ten convening nations -- Chile, the Czech Republic, India, Korea, Mali, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, South Africa and the United States.

After an initial plenary session on November 10, the foreign ministers and their delegations will split into several roundtable sessions that will be asked to produce specific action plans to be carried out in the two year period between the Seoul conference and a third conference now scheduled for Chile in 2004.

The specifics of the agenda are currently under discussion.

A parallel meeting of non-governmental experts will prepare recommendations based on their own agenda, which will be conveyed to the ministers. The conference will conclude with a plenary session on November 12 during which final resolutions will be adopted.