CAIRO: Six of the 22 members of the Arab League favor holding an Arab summit on the violence between Israel and Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said on Monday. The response falls short of the two-thirds majority needed for a summit to go ahead but more governments could sign up for a summit in the days to come, a league official added. The six members are Algeria, Egypt, Qatar, Sudan, Yemen and the Palestinians. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh made a formal request for a summit last week. President Hosni Mubarak said on Sunday he was in favor of a summit in principle but the participants must agree on the main points before the leaders meet. Arab foreign ministers had an emergency meeting in Cairo on Saturday on the violence and called for a ceasefire. Moussa said Arab ambassadors to the league would meet in Cairo on Tuesday for consultations on the summit proposals. The violence, mainly by Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, puts Arab governments in a difficult position. Only Saudi Arabia has criticized Hizbollah directly and only Syria has been strongly supportive of the militants. Reuters
Six Arab governments favor summit on Middle East
