Colombo, April 22 (IANS): A total of 103 countries have confirmed their participation in the World Conference on Youth (WCY) to be hosted by Sri Lanka next month, the country's youth ministry stated Tuesday.

The confirmed list of invitees include senior ministers and senior government officials from over 40 countries, national youth delegates representing 103 nations and over 300 youth delegates representing various civil society movements, Xinhua reported.

President of the UN General Assembly John William Ashe, UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy on Youth Ahmad Alhendawi and several other heads of UN agencies have confirmed their participation in WCY 2014.

WCY 2014 will be held May 6-9 in Colombo.

The theme of WCY 2014 is "Mainstreaming Youth in the Post-2015 Development Agenda".

"The conference is expected to bring together 1,500 participants, half of them young people aged 18 to 29, and 350 of them will come from marginalised backgrounds, making the conference one of the most well represented youth events at global level," the statement added.