Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz left for Indonesia on Wednesday to represent Pakistan in the summit of two-day D-8, Group of eight developing Muslim countries, officials said.

The D-8 is to hold its fifth summit in the Indonesian island of Bali on Friday. D-8 groups Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.

Indonesia will assume the D-8 chairmanship from Iran, which hosted the fourth summit in Tehran in 2004.

Officials said that the summit would discuss ways to boost trade, alleviate poverty, reduce debt and develop alternative energy sources.

The group is aimed at expanding cooperation among large Islamic states in the economic and commercial fields, promoting collective cooperation in international decision-making and providing more welfare facilities for member countries.

Reports suggested that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Prime Ministers of Turkey Tayyip Recep Erdogan, Prime Minister of Malaysia Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo would attend the summit.

The foreign ministers of Egypt and Bangladesh will also be attending the summit as heads of their countries' delegations.

D-8 was founded in Istanbul, Turkey on June 15, 1997.

Senior officials are holding meetings to finalize the draft of the Bali Declaration to be signed during the summit Saturday.

Source: Xinhua