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For the first time on Monday, a relative of a victim of the September 11, 2001 attacks that were mostly carried out by Saudi nationals will speak in public in the kingdom.
Sonia Tita Puopolo, is the daughter of Sonia Morales Puopolo, who was a passenger on American Airlines flight 11 that crashed into one of the towers of New York's World Trade Center.
She is to speak during a session titled "Terrorism - The Human Toll" at the Jeddah Economic Forum starting in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah in the west of the ultra conservative kingdom on Saturday.
"This session will provide a platform for the families of victims of terrorist acts to share their experience and discuss how terrorism has affected their lives," said a statement from organisers of the three-day forum.
The annual event which bills itself as the "Think Tank of the Middle East" was started in 1999 and features keynote speeches and panel discussions by Saudi and world politicians and business and civic leaders.
This year's event will seek to "honour and recognise culture, identity and diversity as the building blocks for a world of 'common grounds' rather than a global economy of one size fits all," according to organisers.
Participants will include Irish President Mary McAleese, former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, former US vice president Al Gore; Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair; Bahia Hariri a Lebanese member of parliament and sister of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, killed in a bomb attack almost one year ago in Beirut.
Puopolo's appearance at the forum will be the first of its kind in the ultra conservative kingdom, which has been waging its own war against suspected members of the Al-Qaeda terror network.
Many average Saudis still deny any Saudi involvement in the attacks on New York and Washington saying they were a "conspiracy by the West and Jews."
The attacks, which killed almost 3,000 people, were masterminded by Saudi-born Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, who remains on the run.
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers of the three commercial airplanes that slammed into the WTC and the Pentagon and the fourth plane that crashed in a Pennsylvania field were Saudi nationals.
Puopolo senior, a 58-year-old former ballerina born in Puerto Rico, was on the plane bound for Los Angeles from Boston before it was hijacked and crashed into the WTC's north tower.
US-Saudi relations have improved since hitting a low in the aftermath of the September attacks with new King Abdullah vowing to crack down on extremists and initiate economic and social reforms.
In his State of the Union address at the end of January US President George W. Bush urged Saudi Arabia and Egypt to speed up reforms.
Some Saudis say there is a limit to how far the Saudi monarch can go in his quest for reforms in the face of the entrenched and influential religious establishment.
At least 90 civilians, 49 security personnel and at least 119 suspected militants have been killed in a wave of violent clashes and attacks against westerners that hit Saudi Arabia since May 2003.
Although attacks have subsided since then, two Qaeda suspects on the kingdom's most wanted list were killed in clashes with security forces north of Riyadh at the end of December.
The US mission in Saudi Arabia periodically issues warnings to the estimated 30,000 Americans living in the kingdom. Five non-American consular staff members and contractors were killed when militants stormed the US consulate in Jeddah in December 2004.
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AFP 111334 GMT 02 06
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