Welcome to ICNNAI'99, the first International Conference on Neural Networks and Artificial Intelligence, which is held in Brest in Belarus. It is hosted and organized by Brest State Technical University, Laboratory of Artificial Neural Networks, in close collaboration with the International Neural Network Society (INNS). Furthermore, it is supported by the International Association for the promotion of cooperation with scientists from the New Independent States (NIS) of the former Soviet Union (INTAS) and Ministry of Education (Belarus). During the organization of the Conference the new Belarus Special Interest Group of INNS (Belarus SIG INNS) was founded.

The conference aims are to present and discuss together with the researchers from various countries research results and their applications in the broad field of neural computation. It is intended to support worldwide exchange of ideas and to foster dialogue between researchers.

The Conference consists of two complementary parts. The first part is the INTAS monitoring day. On that day different INTAS projects will be presented and discussed as well as some examples of cooperation between Central Europe & NIS countries.

The second part is devoted to neural networks and artificial intelligence. It will cover fundamental and applied aspects in the broad field of neural computation. After reviewing, the Program Committee has accepted 40 submissions. Each of the accepted papers has been reviewed by at least two referees. I would like to thank the referees for their work, which was the most important step in the selection process.

And also we would like to thank all those who contributed to the organization of this conference, in the first place the INTAS for their sponsorship and for support.

On behalf of the Program Committee, I want to welcome all the participants to the International Conference on Neural Networks and Artificial Intelligence. I hope that this Conference will be very successful and fruitful to all of you and will contribute to further development in the field of Neural Networks and Artificial Intelligence.