ATHENS, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Greek Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairman-in-Office, George Papandreou called for a fruitful dialogue on security challenges matched "with concrete progress" as he opened on Tuesday the 17th ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

    More than 45 foreign affairs ministers and high level representatives of 56 member states and some partner countries are attending the two-day summit, with the aim of adopting a Joint Declaration on the future of security in Europe.

    Greece, which holds the OSCE chairmanship this year, launched the Corfu Process in June at an informal meeting held at the Greek island, aiming at enhancing dialogue on the new threats the international community faces.

    Papandreou asked OSCE states during his speech to reinforce with one voice their commitment to find solutions through this procedure which has been a ray of hope in a stormy year for European security prospects, as he said.

    "We have to move from words to action. The new dialogue on European security can be meaningful only if it is tied to concrete progress on key security challenges. We have to agree on important decisions in the next two days to strengthen co-operative security across the OSCE area," Papandreou underscored.

    As OSCE chairman-in-office, he made references to positive steps and setbacks that have occurred these past months in Afghanistan, talks on the Transnistrian conflict, the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, the Turkish-Armenia relations, the aftermath of war in Georgia, the global financial crisis and the efforts to handle climate change, energy security, the immigration challenge, wishing Kazakhstan that takes over in January 1st best success.

    Declaring the start of the meeting at the Athens Olympic Fencing Center, Greek President Karolos Papoulias expressed hope that the Athens summit will send a message of unity for the OSCE's future and the advancing of dialogue on security in Europe.

    "At the cradle of democracy we are obliged to move on and restore confidence and promote strategic cooperation for joint action in front of common challenges," Papoulias said. Underlining the difficulties lying ahead, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's President, Joao Soares, noted in his statement that there is already a body of pledges that haven't been kept.

    "I feel we should be focusing on applying them instead of trying to produce new texts. To be brutally honest, I am seriously doubt that today we would be able to reach agreement on many of the issues we agreed to in Helsinki, Copenhagen, Paris," Soares said.

    Appearing more optimistic during his address OSCE's Secretary General, Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, noted: "This is not business as always. In the history of this Organization there have been moments when the participating states needed a place to clear the ground to rebuild the foundations of pan- European security. We face a similar moment today. The Corfu Process holds this promise."

    On the sidelines of the summit during which important decisions on a wide range of topics concerning all three OSCE dimensions, are expected to be made, there will be a series of bilateral meetings that may advance regional and international issues.

    OSCE Ministerial Council is the central governing and decision-making body of the organization. It is held on a yearly basis, hosted by the country which holds the chairmanship each time and gives the foreign ministers the opportunity to assess the organization's activities, exchange views on security matters and plan future common policies.