SHARM EL-SHEIKH (Egypt), March 1: The United Arab Emirates proposed on Saturday that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his top aides should go into exile as Arab leaders held crisis talks in Egypt on ways to avert an invasion.

It was the first time an Arab state had officially called on Iraq’s leadership to step down and leave Iraq, a solution which Washington has said could spare the volatile region another war. Arab states had so far publicly rejected such ideas as meddling in Iraq’s internal affairs.

Some Arab officials expressed surprise that the proposal was presented formally, rather than behind closed doors, suggesting a summit in the public glare was not the appropriate forum for such a sensitive debate.—Reuters