Photo: The Secretary of the GPC for Public Security Abdulfattah Al-Ubaidi, R, and Antonio Maria Costa, sign cooperation agreement in Tripoli.

Libya on Wednesday signed an agreement with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Tuesday to join forces to crack down on organized crime in the Maghreb region.

According to the agreement, UNODC will open an office in Tripoli aimed at providing technical support to help fight organized crime, drugs and human trafficking, corruption and money laundering.

The Secretary of the GPC for Public Security General Abdulfattah Al-Ubaidi signed the agreement on behalf of Libya, while Antonio Maria Costa, under secretary of the General Secretary and Executive Director, United Nation Drugs and Crimes signed on behalf of the UNODC.

The United Nations will also help Maghreb countries in North Africa -- Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia -- to modernize their criminal justice system and help rehabilitate drug addicts, he said.

Mr. Mohamed Abdul-Aziz, the Regional Representative of UNODC for the Middle East and North Africa, said the establishment of the office comes as a result of "a fruitful and constructive cooperation between the Libyan departments that are concerned with fighting drugs and crimes and the East and North Africa through a number of joint projects."

Libya has pledged to disburse a first installment of six million dollars to help kick-start the activities of the crime-busting operation, the UNODC's Cairo-based regional representative Mohammed Abdel Aziz said.

The Libyan civil society together with other stakeholders have been urged to work together in the fight against drug trafficking and utilize effectively the establishment of the new UNODC Sub-regional program office in Libya.

It is hoped that, the presence of this new office in the Great Jamahiriya will impact the entire north African region stretching its services to further countries like Mauritania, Mali, Chad, Morocco, Sudan and those of the north Africa like Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Niger.

On the same occasion, Dr. Antonio hailed Libya's continued support to fighting drug and human trafficking and thanked Libya particularly for the $6 million financial contribution that would be injected in the establishment of the new office.

"For us at the United Nations Drugs and Crime, this event is a very remarkable one, it is a result of a number of years' efforts as we have been aspiring to establish an office here in Tripoli," said Dr. Antonio.

According to Dr. Antonio, the new office will focus on areas like fighting organized crime and illicit trafficking of drugs, promotion of integrity and the judiciary system, drug prevention and prevention of the spread of HIV, among others.