Egypt to hold intl. meeting to retrieve relics

Egypt has invited international antiquities officials to a conference discussing the return of ancient relics from foreign museums.

Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass broke the news to AFP on Sunday, saying, "We are preparing for this conference but we don't know the date yet."

Greece, which seeks to retrieve the ancient collection of sculptures known as the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum, and Italy are among the invited countries.

Hawass began to recover Egyptian antiquities since he took the helm of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities in 2002.

The Rosetta Stone (British Museum), Queen nefertiti bust (Berlin's Neues Museum), Dendera Zodiac (Louvre), bust of pyramid builder Ankhaf (Boston Museum of Fine Art) and statue of architect Hemiunu (Pelizaeus Museum of Hildesheim) are only a few of the Egyptian relics dispersed in museums around the world.

Egypt suspended its cooperation with the Louvre in early October, after the museum refused to return what the country believed to be stolen artifacts.

The country restored the Louvre excavations in Egypt only after the French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand agreed to return the fragments.

Hawass also cut ties with the St. Louis Art Museum over a 3,200-year-old golden burial mask that the museum refused to return.