Greetings from the sunny island of Malta in the Mediterranean, now a member of the EU!

These messageboards have been a great help to me, a complete novice to investing, in the past, and so, humbly, I seek your help again.

Here in Malta, a country probably smaller than the island of Manhattan (!), we have little opportunities to invest, so US funds are out for me (being a non-US resident).  Contributors to these MBs have advised me to look at ETFs, and for the past few months, thanks to Morningstar's ETF Investor, and their book ETF 150, I've been boning up.

The sheer volume of information is simply mind-blowing: wide moats, fair values, star ratings, Analyst favourites, etc!  So, here's my question -

Of course, it is impossible for you to help me build a portfolio without further information from me as to time scale, amount, returns required, risk profile, etc, but that's NOT what I'm asking.  How would you suggest a beginner approaches the task of building a portfolio of say 7-10 ETFs?  What lists should he start off with, fund ratings, or sector choices, or TERs, or company history, or (dangerous one this) past performance, etc.  I've read through Mr Ptak's walkthroughs, which although educational, didn't quite help in tackling the task of reducing the hundreds of ETFs down to say 30 - 50 to finally build my portfolio from - can you pleeeease help?

Thanks a million, folks and I really am jealous of being unable to invest in say Vanguard's 500 Index fund.

Mario