CAIRO, Feb 20: The annual Arab summit will take place in Cairo on March 1 with Bahrain presiding and be devoted to the Iraqi crisis, the Arab League said on Thursday, following abortive efforts to stage an earlier meeting.

“The Arab League announces that the ordinary Arab summit will hold its 15th session on March 1 in Cairo under the chairmanship of the kingdom of Bahrain”, an official statement said.

Earlier, Bahrain’s official BNA news agency said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa set the date during a telephone call Wednesday night.

“It was agreed during the talks that Bahrain will call the 15th ordinary Arab summit and chair it on March 1 at the headquarters of the Arab League in Egypt,” the agency said.

In Cairo, Arab League spokesman Hisham Yussef said Arab foreign ministers will meet on February 27 to lay out the summit’s agenda.

“The agenda should deal with three main issues: Iraq, Palestine and a third question on which consultations are still underway,” he told journalists, giving no further details.

Bahrain, which hosts the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet deployed in the region, had originally been selected as the venue for the summit to be held on March 24, but stood aside in favour of Egypt, which hosts the 22-member Arab League, as the Iraqi crisis escalated.

Egypt tried to organise an emergency summit for the end of February but foreign ministers last weekend failed to agree on a date and the initiative was abandoned as deep differences emerged over how to tackle US threats to oust the Baghdad regime.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said in remarks published Wednesday: “There is no need to hold an emergency summit after the extraordinary meeting of Arab foreign ministers.

“Holding a summit without first issuing a resolution on the Iraq crisis agreed unanimously by Arab countries may worsen the situation,” he said.

“It’s enough to have held the preliminary (foreign ministers’) meeting now and to focus on making the regular summit in March a successful meeting, while continuing to urge Iraq to cooperate more with UN inspectors,” he said.

Arab League chief Amr Mussa issued Thursday a similar message, urging Arab leaders to overcome the rift.

The Arab foreign ministers’ meeting ended Sunday in acrimony after Kuwait accused the gathering’s Lebanese chairman of steamrollering through a statement critical of Arab states hosting US forces in the buildup to the threatened conflict.

Qatar, which like Kuwait is providing facilities for the buildup including an important airbase, lodged a protest here Wednesday over Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmud Hammud’s handling of the meeting.—AFP