The Foreign Ministry will this year organise a training course for election observers aimed at increasing the number of people trained and listed for election observation in United Nations, Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Council of Europe and European Union missions.

Election observation, Foreign Minister Michael Frendo said, was specifically discussed in the strategic objectives of Malta's foreign policy.

The minister was speaking during a debriefing session by the five Maltese election observers who took part in the recent EU Election Observation Mission in Palestine.

Nationalist MP Mario Galea, MLP international secretary Joe Mifsud, Anna Zammit, Alan Bugeja and Stefan Muscat were among the 186 short-term observers from 22 EU member states, together with Norway and Switzerland, who formed part of the EU election observations mission in Gaza and the West Bank.

They reported that they were very well received by the Palestinian population and that they were stationed in Jenin, Tulkarem, Nablus and Ramallah. Three of these locations are high risk areas.

Dr Frendo and the election observers discussed the living conditions, the state of the economy and the comments they received from Palestinians on how and why they voted in the recent legislative council elections.

Malta will continue to make election observation an area of specialisation in international affairs, the minister said.

Malta's participation in the EU Palestine Election Observation Mission consisted of the highest per capita representation among EU member states.

Luxembourg's representation was also made up of five observers.