KUWAIT, Dec 22: Arab leaders said on Monday they had agreed on new measures to combat terrorism, including purging rhetoric from school textbooks that Washington says fuels anti-Christian and anti-Jewish sentiment.

The announcement came at the end of an annual meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) — a political and military alliance grouping heavyweight Saudi Arabia with Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

“Due to the Council’s concern to boost security cooperation and coordination to fight terrorism, it blessed the adoption of a treaty to combat terrorism,” said the final communique, read out by Secretary-General Abdul Rahman al Attiya.

The GCC has come under pressure from Washington since the Sept 11, 2001, attacks to take stronger steps against anti-West militants and to reform school curricula.

Officials said the treaty called for security coordination, exchange of information, strengthening security networks and drying up sources of terrorism as well as educational changes.

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad al Sabah told a news conference interior ministers would soon sign the treaty, similar to a pact signed by Arab states in 1998.

“It ... defines exactly what is terrorism .. it also deals directly with the sources of financing and methods of operation we might combat,” he added.

The educational reforms include removal from school textbooks of material describing followers of other religions as infidels and enemies of Islam.

Critics say language exercises in Saudi schools have sometimes asked children to complete sentences like “God hates...” — the correct answer being “infidels”.

A text used by 13 and 14-year-olds in Saudi Arabia used to enjoin Muslims not to befriend Christians and Jews because “emulation of the infidels leads to loving them”. The passage was recently erased.

US officials have argued such teaching lies behind the anti-Western sentiment that led to attacks like Sept 11.

The GCC said the educational reforms were based on a document presented by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah, whose country is fighting militants linked to the Al Qaeda.

The GCC, which groups four OPEC members, discussed the situation in Iraq and welcomed the capture of Saddam Hussein “as a boost to security and stability”.

The two-day summit, convened amid tight security, also discussed steps towards economic integration, including a single currency and common market.

After Libya said it was giving up plans for nuclear and other banned weapons, the GCC renewed its calls for a Middle East free of all weapons of mass destruction.

It called for Israel to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and subject its nuclear facilities to inspections.

The communique made no mention of US calls for governments to lighten Iraq’s enormous debt burden, but Gulf officials said the controversial issue was tackled on the sidelines.

Kuwait’s foreign minister said it would be tackled fully once US presidential envoy James Baker visits. Kuwait opposes cancelling all the money Baghdad owes it. —Reuters