CAIRO, May 9: A summit in Brazil this week aimed at forging closer ties between South American and Arab countries is being largely ignored by Arab leaders, even after two years of preparation. Only one in four Arab heads of state is due to attend the two-day meeting opening in Brasilia Tuesday after being called by Brazil’s socialist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

“I would have liked to see greater Arab participation at the summit,” Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa acknowledged to reporters as he landed in Brasilia. He said the unprecedented Arab-South American summit would, however, become a regular event, possibly every two years.

Arab diplomats in Brasilia told AFP that the United States had pressured several countries to stay away after the hosts turned down a US request for observer status at the summit.

“The summit is a window of opportunity for peoples to meet ... so that Arabs break away from the position of isolation imposed on them,” by Washington and Israel, wrote commentator Mamduh Assobki in the Cairo newspaper Al-Akhbar.

He also denounced the “US domination of Latin America which the United States regards as its backyard”.

Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak, whose country is the most populated in the region and strategically located between Africa and Asia, has delegated Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit to represent him at the summit.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the de facto ruler of the oil-rich kingdom, and Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, who was received in great pomp in Brasilia last year, have both turned down the invitation.

Tunisia’s President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Libyan President Moamer Qadhafi are also shunning the summit, along with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Among Arab leaders attending are Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika who will also represent the Arab League, Iraq’s new President Jalal Talabani and Mahmud Abbas who succeeded Yasser Arafat last January as Palestinian leader.

The summit is to close with a statement critical of Israel that will call for the dismantling of all Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Participants are also expected to express opposition to Washington’s sanctions against Syria and stress “the right for states and peoples to resist foreign occupation”.

Trade issues will also be tackled, although Argentina has aired reservations about Lula’s push for increased south-south exchanges.—AFP