The formation of a virtual enterprise and the selection of its partners is an important process in the lifecycle of a virtual enterprise. In this paper, we present the virtual enterprise formation process as an agent interaction protocol and an approach to its implementation. We have focused on the selection of partners within the formation process in order to understand these interactions and the contents of the messages that are exchanged between the agents. Based on this, we describe how the AGORA multi-agent architecture can be used to support the formation of a virtual enterprise.