Egyptian President Mubarak not to attend Doha Summit (1st Lead)

Mar 28, 2009, 10:32 GMT

Cairo- Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak will not attend the Arab summit in Doha scheduled on March 30-31, the State Middle East News Agency (MENA) quoted Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit as saying on Saturday.

Aboul-Gheit did not indicate the reason for Mubarak's non- attendance at the meeting, which was to review issues of reconciliation within the Arab camp. But Egypt would send a delegation to Doha.

Mubarak's decision came as Arab Leaders meeting under the 22- member Arab League are gearing up for the Doha meeting whose top item on the agenda is inter-Arab reconciliation.

The Doha summit is also scheduled to discuss inter-palestinian differences as well as the international arrest warrant of the Sudanese president.

Israel's 22-day offensive on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in December last year has sharply divided Arab countries.

While Syria and Qatar back the Islamist group Hamas, Saudi Arabia and Egypt have sided with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah group.

Qatar previously convened an emergency summit conference in support of Gaza, which Egypt and Saudi Arabia boycotted.

However, during the Arab economic summit held in Kuwait in January, participants called on Arab countries to unite, saying otherwise their differences would be used by countries - they made a reference to Iran - that have hegemonic ambitions.

Since then, frequent visits have been made by Arab heads of states in an apparent effort to try to seek greater unity within the Arab camp. On March 11, heads of state of Egypt, Kuwait and Syria visited Saudi Arabia for a four-nation summit in Riyadh. On March 12, Mubark visited Jordan, on March 15, the Yemeni foreign minister visited Lebanon and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa visited Syria.