Egypt asks Arab League to convene emergency summit

EGYPT/BLIX REPORT: Cairo yesterday formally called upon the Arab League to host an emergency summit on the crisis over Iraq.

The Egyptian President, Mr Hosni Mubarak, said: "It does not make sense that we all sit helplessly until the attack takes place . . . The danger is looming."

The Arabs could not "stop the war because we do not have the military power to do so, but we can affect the decision-makers, before the war starts, to strive for a peaceful solution."

Earlier in the day the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Mr Ahmad Maher, asked the League's Secretary-General, Mr Amr Moussa, to convene the gathering "as soon as possible".

Analysts say the call for an early summit amounts to a reversal of policy by Cairo.

Mr Mubarak, who met the Syrian and Libyan leaders and the Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia at the resort of Sharm al-Shaikh last Sunday, had apparently adopted the view that the Arabs can do nothing to halt or slow the US war plans.

The call for an early summit now seems to suggest otherwise.

While there has been speculation that Arab rulers have discussed granting President Saddam Hussein sanctuary if he chooses to step down peacefully, no formal proposal has been put to him.

A summit would have the authority to do just this.

It is significant that Egypt's call for an early top-level meeting followed talks in Cairo between Mr Mubarak and Bahrain's ruler, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, who had been scheduled to host the annual meeting.