Arab summit eyes unity as hawks rise in Israel

DOHA, (AFP)

Arab leaders stage their annual summit in Qatar on Monday, determined to make a show of unity as hawkish right-wingers prepare to assume power in Israel in what is seen as a threat to Middle East peace.

Leaders of the 22-member Arab League will seek to close ranks split largely over how to respond to Israel's 22-day onslaught on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, and also amid the growing influence of Shiite Iran in the region."Inter-Arab reconciliation figures high on the summit's agenda," Arab League deputy chief Ahmed bin Helli told AFP ahead of the two-day gathering.

A Qatari official voiced "hope that the Doha summit will serve to streamline Arab relations and relaunch a common Arab action that has a firm basis." King Abdullah of oil kingpin Saudi Arabia met the presidents of Egypt and Syria on March 11 to promote such reconciliation, two months after another ice-breaking mini-summit in Kuwait.The two meetings allowed Western-backed Egypt and Saudi Arabia to improve contacts with Syria - a major Arab ally of Iran - which had worsened during the war on Gaza.Cairo and Riyadh are staunch supporters of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, while Damascus and Doha back the Islamist Hamas, which routed Abbas's Fatah loyalists from Gaza in deadly factional fighting in June 2007.

Egypt has been brokering reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas, and they are due to resume discussions on April 1 after failing in a first round to agree on the composition and programme of a unity government.