Participants at the closed-door meeting said the anti-terrorism pact had been unanimously approved. The Lebanese Interior Minister, Michel al-Murr, told journalists it would have to be formally adopted at a joint gathering of Interior and Justice Ministers in April, then ratified by Arab governments.

According to reports, the agreement covers the extradition of wanted or convicted fugitives. It also commits Arab countries to prevent their territory from being used as a base for attacks and to freeze financial assets thought to be funding such operations.

For several years Arab Interior Ministers have been discussing ways to co-operate against terrorism, the term they use to refer to militant Islamic extremists. Egypt and Algeria in particular have been pushing joint action to combat the Muslim fundamentalist violence that began to grow in their countries in the early 1990s.

At the Tunis meeting, the Egyptian and Algerian ministers also called on Arab governments to pressure other states to extradite Islamic extremists granted safe haven within their borders. Neither mentioned specific countries but authorities in Cairo have accused Britain in particular of sheltering convicted fugitives that they say are directing operations within Egypt.