Arab foreign ministers met today to prepare for an Arab summit facing the two key challenges ofhow to support Palestinians in revolt against Israeli occupation and how to deal with the divisive issue of Iraq.
Ministers began two days of talks in Amman, where King Abdullah of Jordan will host next week's summit, the biggest international event staged theresince the funeral of his father, King Hussein, in February 1999.
The ministers were due to draft resolutions for the approval of Arab leaders who will gather on Tuesday for their first regular summit since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Palestinians will ask the summit to fulfil a pledge of US$1 billion in support of their six-month-old uprising, but Arab leaders are unlikely to heed calls for reviving an Arab boycott of Israel or for breaking all Arab ties with the Jewish state.
On Iraq, they will seek a compromise likely to feature a call for the lifting of UN economic sanctions. Kuwait has said it will not oppose this, but has ruled out any reconciliation with its former occupier at the summit.