Clinton announces new Muslim initiatives

Clinton announced measures to encourage entrepreneurs and job creation, support investment in technology and improve the education of women.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a package of measures on Tuesday designed to help businesses and non-governmental groups around the Muslim world.

The initiatives come after President Barack Obama's much-heralded speech in Cairo in June, in which he called for a new beginning in relations between the United States and the Muslim world.

- Our goal is to listen more and discover new ways that we can work as partners - Clinton said at the sixth Forum for the Future conference in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh.

Clinton announced measures to encourage entrepreneurs and job creation, support investment in technology and improve the education of women.

An "Entrepreneurship Summit" will be held in Washington next year to bring together America's business leaders with others from around the world, Clinton said.

Clinton also announced a "Civil Society 2.0" project, intended to - empower grassroots civil society organizations around the world by helping them use digital technology. -

A number of pilot schemes are planned for this project to support new media and distance learning in Africa and the Middle East.

The secretary of state said inter-faith working groups would be set up to hold meetings twice a year to encourage dialogue between the private sector as well as governments.