Libya to host six-way summit on Sudan’s Darfur issue

CAIRO, May 15, 2005 (Xinhua) — A six-way African summit will be held Monday in the Libyan capital Tripoli to probe means of solving the 26-month crisis of the western Sudanese region of Darfur, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa announced here Sunday.

AU observer amid the burnt remains of houses. (AP).

In statements to the press before heading for Libya, Moussa said that the league’s participation in the six-way summit will be the first for the pan-Arab body at such a level, though not the first time for the league to attend meetings on Darfur.

The summit, originally scheduled to take place in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, will be attended by leaders from Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, Sudan, Chad and Gabon.

Moussa praised cooperation between the Arab League and the African Union regarding the Darfur problem, asserting that the league’s participation in the summit was the fruition of such cooperation.

He, meanwhile, talking about the Iraqi issue, saying his league expressed deep regret at the bloodshed in Iraq and is making contacts with the parties concerned, the latest being with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Foreign Minister Hoshiar Zibari on the sidelines of the Arab-Latin American summit in Brasilia.

Contacts will continue within the framework of the political process in order to make the situation in Iraq less tense and more reassuring for the future, he said.