London — "The idea of an alliance between Islamists and secularists has been based on a reading of the Tunisian personality which is deeply-rooted in the Arab-Moslem identity and attached to the values of modernity and consecration of collective and individual liberties," President Moncef Marzouki said Monday in London.

"In this transition stage, Tunisia has been converted into a laboratory which will define the political geography of the whole region," he also pointed out.

Taking the floor at a debate organised by the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Mr. Marzouki, who was awarded together with Ennahdha Movement Chairman Rached Ghannouchi the Chatham House Prize, said that Tunisia has become, thanks to its Revolution, an example to follow in matters of consecrating liberties and democracy, a country which, not so long ago, was a symbol of repression and dictatorship.

For his part, Mr. Rached Ghannouchi estimated that the idea of the alliance was based on a theoretical approach materialised thanks to the October 18 document which had given rise, for the first time in the Arab history, to a government alliance between secularists and Islamists.

This model, he pointed out, shows that Democracy and Islam are not opposed but could be conciliated.