Arabs' summit reschedule

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said a unilateral Tunisian decision to postpone an Arab summit was unjustified and Arab leaders sought yesterday to reschedule the meeting.

Tunisia said it had indefinitely postponed the summit because of disagreements at a ministerial meeting in Tunis on Saturday over democratic reforms demanded by the United States. But Mr Mubarak said problems that emerged at the meetings could be solved.

Morocco announced that Arab foreign ministers planned to meet in Cairo in "the next few weeks" to study the possibility of holding a new summit, and Mr Mubarak said Arab leaders could meet within three weeks. Expressing "astonishment and regret" over Tunisia's decision, Egypt offered on Sunday to host the meeting that had been due to open yesterday. Tunisia's decision also surprised other Arab states.

"There is no justification... (for) the delay of the summit and for a party to impose its view unilaterally without consulting the others," Egypt's official Middle East News Agency (MENA) quoted Mr Mubarak as saying.

Some delegates said Tunis was unhappy that some Arab leaders did not plan to attend and wanted to prove its democratic credentials to Washington.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in remarks released by the State Department yesterday that Washington had nothing to do with the postponement. "I was hoping the summit would be able to go ahead," Mr Powell said.