The “Integrating and strengthening the European Research Area” programme is an integral part of the 6th Framework Programme aiming at international cooperation in research and technology development (RTD). This work programme describes the dedicated international cooperation activities relevant to some groups of countries, i.e. developing countries, Mediterranean partner countries, Western Balkans, Russia and other new independent states, to be undertaken in the framework “Integrating and strengthening the European Research Area” programme. These specific international cooperation activities will explicitly support EU’s external relations and development of aid policies. The activities in question will take into account fundamental cross-cutting questions such as gender, ethics, environmental and economic sustainability and social equity.The paper gives the overview of the objectives, structure and overall approach, figures out the cooperation with the countries concerned, describes the multilateral coordination of national RTD policies and activities, provides the links to other research topics, offers the implementation plan and related issues. The document contains the country-wise call information with regard to specific targeted research projects and coordination actions as well as the specific support actions. It also comprises the complementary information about the evaluation procedure and the list of all research priorities foreseen for the specific measures in support of international cooperation for 2002 – 2006.