President of Slovenian PEN Marjan Strojan said at Tuesday's press conference preceding the three-day event that a panel debate on Thursday would focus on the time dimension of poetic creativity and poetry as part of every creative act.

The agenda, which has been prepared by the Slovenian Writers' Association, will also be dedicated to poetry, with Ljubljana castle hosting US suburban poet Sydney Lea, who is strongly engaged in environmental issues and who has already appeared in Slovenia.

The meeting will meanwhile also cover broader subjects with panels on topics like the decline or challenges of the European civilisation, which will see the participation of the head of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SAZU) Jože Trontelj.

Among writers Bled has become a symbol of an oasis of peace, where writers of hostile states and nations meet peacefully, said Slovenian writer Edvard Kovač, the president of the Writers for Peace Committee of International PEN.

A round table organised by the Peace Committee on Friday will thus bring together Palestinian and Israeli writers as well as two writers from Morocco who have found refuge in Ljubljana.

The annual international PEN meeting, whose budget for this year has been cut by 20%, will bring together around 50 writers, some of whom will present their work at 11 literary evenings around Slovenia.