ARAB AFFAIRS - Feb. 24 - Iraqi Plea Over Summit Divides States.

Sharp divisions in the Arab World emerge as Iraqi FM Naji Sabri asks for a 2-week postponement of the March 1 Arab League summit at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Shaikh, designed to present a united front on the developing crisis in the region. An Arab League official says that 21 of the 22 member states will take part in the gathering in Sharm el Shaikh, where Arab foreign ministers are due to meet on Feb. 27 to prepare for a summit on March 1. But the numbers supporting a postponement of the meeting - Syria, Lebanon and undisclosed North African states - swelled through the day after Naji Sabri said Baghdad needed all the time available to deal with requests by UN weapons inspectors. Observers say that following an acrimonious meeting of Arab foreign ministers earlier this month, Iraq is now concerned that a summit will help Washington in its push for a new UN Security Council resolution that paves the way for military action. The Iraqi request for a postponement thus appears designed to avert a meeting that could increase the pressure on Baghdad rather than send a message of opposition to war. In a sign of rising tensions between Baghdad and other Arab states, the state-controlled Iraqi press has resumed the criticism of neighbours: Iraqi Pres. Saddam Hussein denounced the "faint-hearted" Arabs. Egypt, the summit host, insisted that the meeting must go ahead, with Pres. Hosni Mubarak saying: "An Arab summit that is held after a strike would be meaningless. It would worsen the Arab situation and lead to a war of words among Arab states... Arab states are showing no signs of life on this matter as if it did not concern them". Saudi Arabia, which has floated the idea of asking Saddam to step down and go into exile, was initially lukewarm about the idea of summit. But it now wants the meeting to go ahead as planned on March 1. Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar were also initially worried that any summit might embarrass them because of the numbers of US and British troops massing in their territory. But once it was agreed that the meeting was to be chaired by the Bahrainis, they too swung round to support a March 1 summit.