CAIRO, March 3: Arab foreign ministers opened a new round of meetings here Wednesday to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, instability in Iraq and political reform in Arab countries.

"The ministers will debate the situation in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and ideas for reform in the Middle East in order to draft a joint Arab stand," Arab League deputy secretary general Ahmed Ben Helli told reporters.

Sources close to the participants said top Arab diplomats were to produce a joint draft for reform in the Middle East, amounting to a counter-proposal to US plans for political and economic change.

Arab states fear the US "Greater Middle East Initiative" seeks to impose foreign cultural models for change on them. Egypt submitted its own counter-initiative to the foreign ministers here Monday and also stressed the need to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to improve the atmosphere for reform. -AFP