“Two important issues, Sudan and the Arab-Israeli conflict,” were added to the agenda of the gathering being held behind closed doors of a dozen Arab leaders, Mussa said.
Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir would submit reports to the summit, which would also be attended by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Arab leaders initially planned to discuss two items – reforms to the Arab League and a proposal to create an “Arab neighbourhood” of countries that would include Iran and Turkey.
In the absence of a consensus on these points, however, the League’s foreign ministers agreed to submit proposals on “the development of joint Arab action” but to postpone the neighbourhood issue until their next summit.
The summit got under way after the Arab League Follow-up Committee for the peace process on Friday backed Abbas’s threat to quit direct talks with Israel unless the Jewish state halts settlement building in the occupied West Bank.
The committee of 13 foreign ministers urged the United States to pursue its efforts to stop Israeli settlement activity, and said it would meet again in one month to review alternative measures if that fails.
Sudan, whose president is wanted for alleged genocide and other crimes in Darfur, is once again a focus of the international community, this time ahead of a January 9 referendum in which southerners could opt for independence.
Source: news24.com