A new multi-lingual satellite TV channel aimed at the Mediterranean region will be launched at the end of January or the beginning of February, according to RAI president Roberto Zaccaria. Speaking at a recent conference in Palermo covering multimedia co-operation in the Mediterranean, Zaccaria said that Euromed will initially broadcast a few hours a day in Italian and Arabic. However, he did not reveal the amount of financial resources RAI plans to commit to the project. Representatives of Italy, Algeria, Egypt, Malta, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Tunisia also agreed to create submarine fibre-optic links between the Mediterranean countries and to launch a multimedia portal called Multi-Med.