Arab ministers strive for unity

Achieving consensus will be hard

By Frank Gardner in Cairo

Arab foreign ministers have been meeting in the Jordanian capital, Amman, to prepare for next week's summit there of Arab leaders.

The ministers' talks are focusing on the summit's two key issues which are how to support the Palestinians in their six-month uprising against Israeli occupation and how to deal with Iraq.

The Palestinian people continue to live under occupation, and it is natural that they look upon us particularly to seek our support

Abdel Ilah al-Khatib, Jordanian Foreign Minister

But the search for consensus may prove difficult as inter-Arab rivalries and tensions continue to block Arab unity.

The ministers are all agreed that a strong message should be sent to Israel to withdraw from all Arab land and to stop what they refer to as Israeli aggression against Palestinians.

But some Arab countries would like to go further.

Syria is expected to call for a reactivation of the Arab boycott of Israel - something resisted by the moderate rulers of Jordan and Egypt, countries that both have peace treaties with Israel.

The money question

Then there is the question of money. The last Arab summit promised a billion dollars to the Palestinians, but only a fraction of that has been delivered, much to the frustration of the Palestinian authority.

Arab governments have been slow to pay up, wary that some of their money might disappear into the wrong hands.

Even more contentious is the issue of Iraq. Most Arab countries want to call for the 11-year old trade embargo to be lifted.

But with Iraq's president, Saddam Hussein, still in power, some Gulf Arab monarchies still feel uneasy about rehabilitating Iraq.

When the summit convenes on Tuesday, a number of Gulf rulers will be conspicuously absent.