LISBON, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU)'s trade commissioner Peter Mandelson said here Sunday that the EU's ties with Mediterranean nations had strengthened at the sixth EuroMed Conference.

    The meeting brought together Europe's 27 member nations with Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey; with Libya as an observer. Its goal was the creation of a free trade area.

    At the conference, Egypt, Morocco and Israel restated their willingness to begin free trade talks, Mandelson said, adding that Egypt had announced that it was willing to sign agreements on services and also rights to set up businesses.

    Manuel Pinho, Portugal's economy and innovation minister who co-presided the conference, said the work would focus on evaluating integration initiative studies and existing negotiations between the two regions.

    "Our objective is to create a free trade agreement in 2010 that will serve a market of 750 million people," he said.