Arab FMs prepare new Middle East peace plan

But even as the meeting began Amman announced that Jordan's King Abdullah II will not the attend the summit Tuesday and Wednesday in the Algerian capital because of a prior commitment to meet investors in the United States.

The king was only one of several key Arab leaders to pullout of the summit, which will also not be attended by Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan.

Nonetheless Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani Mulki voiced satisfaction that Amman succeeded in putting back on the table the three-year-old Middle East plan for a comprehensive Arab peace with Israel based on a land-for-peace settlement.

"The objective was to make the Arab peace plan shine and we did," he told AFP.

The Jordanian proposal stipulates "the readiness of Arab countries to put an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict and to be engaged in security and stability in the Middle East," Mulki said.

It also evokes "normal relations between the Arab countries and Israel in case a just and durable peace is achieved on the basis of international resolutions".

He insisted that its very foundations were based on "the principle of land-for-peace and the terms of the (1991) Madrid conference," which launched the Arab-Israeli peace process.

The Jordanian proposal, which was first put forward by Saudi Arabia at the Beirut summit in 2002, faced opposition from a majority of foreign ministers tasked with preparing the Algiers meeting.

An Arab diplomat said on Friday that the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon were opposed to the text and that the principal sticking points were "vague, confusing and insufficient" proposals over the future status of Jerusalem and of Palestinian refugees, the diplomat said.