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Arabs debate stance for US summit Saudis to attend Mid-East summit
(about 15 hours later)
Arab League foreign ministers are set to meet in Cairo to decide whether to attend next week's Middle East peace conference in the US. Saudi Arabia has said it will attend next week's meeting on the Middle East at Annapolis in the US.
The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, will brief the ministers on the progress of his preliminary talks with Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert. Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said he would go to the Maryland summit but that there would be no "theatrical show" with Israeli officials.
He was speaking at a meeting in Cairo of the Arab League, which will also attend at ministerial level. Syria has yet to decide on its attendance.
The US has sought strong Arab presence to bolster the conference.
Egypt and Jordan have already said they will go.
Declaration
Prince Saud confirmed his attendance but admitted there had been opposition.
"I'm not hiding any secret about the Saudi position. We were reluctant until today. And if not for the Arab consensus we felt today, we would not have decided to go," he said.
"But... as long as the Arab position has agreed on attending, the kingdom will walk along with its brothers in one line."
Prince Saud said he was "not prepared to take part in a theatrical show, in handshakes and meetings that don't express political positions".
Saudi Arabia does not have diplomatic relations with Israel and has been pressing for Israeli concessions to the Palestinians ahead of the talks.
The Saudis have proposed a Middle East peace plan, endorsed by the Arab League, which offers Israel recognition by all Arab states if it leaves occupied Palestinian land.
Golan question
Syrian attendance is still to be decided. But on Friday Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said his government had been given assurances by the US that the Golan Heights, Syrian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, would be on the Annapolis agenda.
This had been a key condition of Syrian attendance.
A US state department spokesman declined to say whether Washington had confirmed to the Syrian government that the Golan Heights would be on the agenda.
He told the BBC News website that all participants would have an opportunity to express their views and their national interests.
The focus of the agenda would be the Israeli-Palestinian issue and issues surrounding that, he added, but nations would be able bring up specific issues if they wanted to.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has been in Cairo briefing ministers on the progress of his preliminary talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Israel and the Palestinians have yet to agree on a joint declaration for the conference, to be held in Annapolis.Israel and the Palestinians have yet to agree on a joint declaration for the conference, to be held in Annapolis.
Some Arab countries may therefore choose not to go to Annapolis. The BBC's Heba Saleh in Cairo says Arabs remain deeply sceptical about Israel's willingness to make concessions for a peace agreement.
The discussions at the Arab League will play an important role in determining which Arab countries will be represented at Annapolis and at what level. But she says they seem to have decided that even a flawed peace conference is preferable to the paralysis of the past seven years.
Before deciding, the ministers will first listen to a report from the Palestinian president about his talks with the Israelis.
Deeply sceptical
Hisham Yussef, a senior Arab League official, says that the ministers' decision will be "a positive one" if they believe that the Annapolis talks will lead to a "reasonable outcome that would allow progress to be achieved".
The US and Israel want the widest possible Arab participation, and have been pressing in particular for the Saudi Foreign Minister to attend.
But the Arabs remain deeply sceptical about Israel's willingness to make concessions for a peace agreement.
Some governments, however, say that having urged the US for seven years to relaunch peace talks, they cannot now stay away.
Egypt has already said it will send its foreign minister.