13 JUNE 2002
King and Queen of Jordan arrived in Brussels on Tuesday at the beginning of an official visit that will take them to France and the United Kingdom over the coming week .

While King Abdullah met with the European Union’s High Representative for the Common and Security Policy, Javier Solana, to discuss the crisis in the Middle East, his wife Queen Rania took advantage of her time to visit a local mosque and interview Muslim immigrants on their lives in the Belgian capital.

Accompanied by Belgium’s Queen Paola, Rania – the world’s youngest queen – was then taken on a tour of the headquarters of Child Focus, an organisation dedicated to helping missing and exploited children of which Paola is a sponsor.

Rania looked radiant in a white trouser suit of modern cut as she carried out her official duties. And during a visit to the mosque, the Jordanian monarch covered her head with a sheet veil.

Following an official reception with the King and Queen of Belgium, the royal couple moved on to Paris where Rania spent the afternoon shopping in the Campo Eliseos quarter of the French capital. Informally dressed in cotton shirt and jeans accessorised with a leather belt, the monarch took advantage her stay to visit a well-known record store.