CAIRO, Aug 5: Arab foreign ministers ruled out a US request to send troops to stabilise Iraq at a meeting here on Tuesday and discussed ways to end its occupation, Arab League secretary general Amr Mussa said.

“There was an agreement that (sending) Arab forces cannot be considered in the current circumstances,” Mussa told reporters.

“We should work to put an end to the occupation and allow the Iraqi people form a national government,” he added.

Bahraini Foreign minister Sheikh Mohammad bin Mubarak al- Khalifa, who chaired the meeting at the 22-member Arab League headquarters, announced the set up of a seven-member committee to follow up the Iraqi issue, made up of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Syria, Qatar, Jordan and Tunisia.

An Arab League official explained that the US request of sending troops was “discussed informally and struck off the agenda because there was no hope of reaching a consensus” at the meeting.

He said many members considered sending troops to help the Americans would be tantamount to helping the occupation.

The Bahraini foreign minister said the Arab League was open to a dialogue with members of the US-sponsored Iraqi Governing Council but did not recognise this body as a legitimate government.

The minister circumvented a question on the Arabs’ position regarding Iraqi guerrilla attacks targeting US and British forces, saying that Arab states were “ready to take part in rebuilding the new Iraq in all (economic) fields”, insisting that Arabs should not be lagging behind the international effort to rescue the war-ravaged country.

An Arab diplomat, who requested anonymity, quoted Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara as saying that there was a “need for a mechanism that allows Arab states to help the Iraqi people get past the crisis”.

Shara “stressed that the Arab League and the United Nations should play a role in solving the Iraqi question through ending the occupation and allowing the Iraqi people govern itself”, the diplomat added.—AFP