Geneva — At his meeting on Friday with Caretaker President Moncef Marzouki, Geneva Mayor Rémy Pagani expressed will to help Tunisian development associations set up concrete projects.

Pagani indeed said that the aid allocated by the Swiss government to Tunisia had been doubled from 12 to 24 million Swiss francs, outlining on the other hand that since the process of returning Tunisian embezzled assets could last five years, "in the meantime, we must take action to support democratic transition in Tunisia."

President Marzouki thanked Switzerland for its support to Tunisia in its fight against dictatorship, pointing out that the corruption characterising totalitarian regimes is a scourge that requires constant vigilance like weeds which inexorably grow again and must be systematically cut.

To do so, Tunisia has launched the Open Gov plan for transparency and will endeavour to set up a higher council to fight against corruption in collaboration with the civil society.

During his two-day-visit to Geneva (June 7-8), Marzouki had a series of talks notably with Zambia's President, Prince of the Asturias Felipe de Borbon and World Trade organisation Director General Pascal Lamy.

He also received the heads of Arab and African three-party-delegations attending the 101st session of the International Labour Conference.

Besides, Marzouki gave interviews to the French-speaking Swiss radio and TV stations and to French "l'Est Républicain" newspaper.