Sunday, November 13 2005 10:09 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Tel Aviv: Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and special envoy for West Asia, Ambassador Chinmaya Gharekhan, will participate in a series of functions commemorating ten years of assassination of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, officials at the Foreign Ministry have said.

Pawar will be present at the state ceremonies as a representative of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh while Gharekhan will be participating in a distinguished gathering on 'Peace, Dream or Vision Conference: A decade since the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin' being organized by the Strategic Dialogue Center in the coastal city of Netanya, the officials told sources yesterday (Nov 12, 2005).

The Agriculture Minister will also be meeting with his counterpart, Yisrael Katz, to look for possible ways to expand cooperation in the field between the two countries following the ceremonies.

Gharekhan is slated to meet several officials in Israel as well as the Palestinian Authority. He will also hold talks with 'quartet' officials to look into ways of advancing peace in the region.

Meanwhile, a rally here last evening commemorating Rabin's killing at the square he was shot, saw the participation of more than 200,000 Israelis.

Waving Israeli flags and banners, the crowd stood shoulder to shoulder, faces tilted towards the stage to watch and listen to footage looking back on Rabin's life, who was shot on November 4, 1995.

The rally was addressed, among others, by Vice-Premier Shimon Peres and Bill Clinton, both of whom paid homage to the late Israeli Prime Minister.