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Egypt has rejected a Qatari request to hold an emergency Arab League summit in Doha on Friday to discuss the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
The Egyptian foreign ministry said on Tuesday that Cairo had told the Arab League that the presence of Arab leaders in Kuwait on January 18 for an economic summit "may pose an appropriate occasion for consultations among them about the situation in Gaza".
Abdel-Alim al-Abyad, the Arab League spokesman, said Qatar made the request for a summit on Monday and that two-thirds of the league's 22 members needed to approve the request for the summit to take place.
Syria welcomed the idea and said it would attend. The Algerian state news agency APS said Algeria also planned to attend.
Lebanon and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, also confirmed their participation.
The 18-day-old Israeli offensive has exposed deep divisions between Arab countries.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia fear a summit would produce little in the way of results and would make Arab leaders appear ineffective, diplomats said.
Amr Moussa, the Arab League secretary-general, said that Arab foreign ministers would hold emergency talks in Kuwait on Friday to discuss "the continuation of the Israeli aggression on Gaza" ahead of their scheduled gathering.
Friday's meeting will "examine the developments relating to Israel's refusal to abide by UN Security Council Resolution 1860" calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, he told reporters.
PHOTO CAPTION
Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak (R) talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during their meeting in Cairo January 10, 2009.
Al-Jazeera
