Determined to put a positive spin on Arab opposition to the use of military action against Iraq, the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, insisted yesterday that the US had Arab backing for a diplomatic solution to the Iraqi weapons crisis.
"Today I can report to you that the United States, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the Palestinian Authority are of one mind on this crisis caused by Iraq's defiance of the Security Council," she said here after meeting President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.
Ms Albright stopped off in the Egyptian capital on her way back to Washington after a two-day tour of the Gulf states drumming up support for the US position on Iraq. Saying that the US would prefer a diplomatic solution, Ms Albright reiterated the US position that a military option could not be excluded.
"We prefer to resolve it diplomatically but if diplomacy fails, sole responsibility of the grave consequences that would follow lies at the feet of the government of Iraq," she said.
But despite the tough talking, only Kuwait gave its wholehearted support to a US-led military strike against President Saddam Hussein during her whirlwind tour of the region.
The Egyptian Foreign Minister, Mr Amr Moussa, warned that more time was needed for diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis, while Saudi Arabia, a close ally of the US, refused permission for US planes to use Saudi air bases for forays into Iraq.
Bahrain, regional headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet, warned only that if a diplomatic solution to the crisis failed, Iraq would face "grave consequences".
The head of the 22-member Arab League, Mr Esmet Abdel Meguid, has rejected the use of force and will meet the Iraqi leader later this week in an effort to help diffuse the crisis.
Mr Mubarak has also made his opposition to a military solution very clear in recent days, saying that it would "only increase tension in the region". He is the leader of the most populous Arab nation which was a close US ally during the 1991 Gulf war.
The Egyptian President has been involved in his own flurry of diplomatic activity in an attempt to defuse the crisis. Over the past two days, he has spoken to at least 14 Middle Eastern and north African leaders and is due to meet the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Mr Muhammed Saeed el-Sahaf, in Cairo within the coming 24 hours.
Widespread popular disillusion with the devastating effect of UN sanctions on ordinary Iraqis, coupled with growing frustration at US reluctance to pressure Israel over its backtracking in the stalled Middle East peace process, have left Egypt and other moderate Arab states less willing to do the superpower's bidding on Iraq.
While Egypt's newspapers strongly criticised Mr Saddam yesterday for the stand-off with the UN, they also criticised Washington's zeal in pressuring Iraq for breaking UN resolutions while ignoring Israel's defiance of longstanding UN demands to withdraw from occupied land.
Kuwait yesterday put its military forces on a higher level of alert. An official statement said the degree of "combat readiness was raised in case of any Iraqi response towards the state of Kuwait in view of latest regional developments".