A MEETING to establish the North-East as a youth capital of Europe is taking place in Durham this month.

Culture North-East will launch Action North-East Generating European Links, or The Angel Project, at Durham Town Hall, next Tuesday.

Aimed at establishing the area as a major centre of influence throughout the continent, the project will focus on young people, involving them in a programme of pan-European events and activities.

The launch event, to which leaders of youth, tourism, business, culture and political organisations from throughout the region are invited, is being supported by Durham City Council, and will be chaired by the Mayor of Durham, Councillor George Cooper.

The project is also supported by the renowned explorer Colonel John Blashford-Snell OBE, founder of the young people's adventure organisation Operation Raleigh, who described it yesterday as "one of the most imaginative and exciting youth ventures to be proposed in Europe today".

He said: "The project has the potential to focus the attention of young people throughout the continent on Britain in general and the North-East in particular.

"Furthermore, it can do this in a manner and to a degree sufficient to create a significant European-wide youth leadership role for the region over the years to come, which will be to the benefit of its own young people and cultural, tourism and business opportunities."

Col Blashford-Snell said the North-East was wise to grasp the opportunity of gaining European importance before another region did.

"This is an opportunity to be grasped and developed to the full, before it is taken up and exploited elsewhere," he said.