SHARM AL-SHEIKH, Feb 28th,2003(KUNA),
By Banadir.com

The Arab foreign minister held on Thursday talks to prepare the agenda of the upcoming Arab Summit due here on Saturday,the 1st of March 2003. An official source said the meeting was chaired by Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al-Khalifa.

Before the meeting, Arab League Secretary General Amr Mousa told reporters that "It is of extreme importance to take a unified position." "Let's not underestimate the Arab voice when it is unified. When the Arab voice is added to many voices that demand not resorting to the war option... this will have to be reckoned with," he told reporters. "It's never too late" to avoid war, he told journalists.

He said that the Arab position regarding Iraq is based on the resolutions of the Beirut Summit and recent developments. Regarding the dispute about the article dealing with Iraq and Kuwait, Mousa said that the dispute is up to the Foreign Ministers to solve, saying that the issue of Iraq tops the agenda and that Kuwait is requesting to add the Iraq-Kuwait issue to the agenda.

When asked if the final communiqu{ of the Arab Foreign Ministers' emergency summit would be included in the discussions, Mousa said that the communiqu{ is a document that the Arab leaders have the option of discussing or not. Regarding the possibility of sending an Arab delegation to Baghdad and Washington with ideas to solve the crisis peacefully, Mousa said that there are a number of ideas at the table, saying that what is important is to solve the issue peacefully.