Arabs convene emergency meeting on West Asia violence

CAIRO, July 15 (Reuters) Arab foreign ministers held an emergency meeting in Cairo today to discuss ways to end Israeli attacks on Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.

Ministers from the 22-member Arab League met in a closed session in Egypt's capital as Israeli forces hit targets in Gaza and Lebanon after the capture of three Israeli soldiers.

''It is an extremely serious situation and going from bad to worse,'' an Arab League official said before the meeting began, asking not to be named. ''I hope it can be stopped.'' The league was considering a Lebanese proposal to condemn the Israeli attacks.

''The general situation can be summed up as a clear targeting of every one of our countries and Arab regional security,'' Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh told the session, according to a text of his remarks.

''It is a complete retreat in the peace process, if not the complete failure of this process,'' he added.

Diplomats said the ministers were likely to call for an end to Israeli attacks and for peaceful settlements between Israel and Hamas on the one hand and Israel and Hizbollah on the other.

But major Arab governments other than Syria will not give unqualified backing to Hamas or Hizbollah, the diplomats added.

US President George W Bush blamed Hizbollah for the violence and called on Syria to exert its influence to persuade the Lebanese Shi'ite group to stop attacks on Israel.

Bahrain and Jordan called for ''an immediate halt to armed confrontations'' in a joint statement after talks between the two countries' leaders in Manama, the official Bahrain News Agency.

Lebanon was also asking Arab states to back demands including an Israeli withdrawal from the disputed Shebaa Farms border area, which the United Nations says is Israeli-occupied Syrian territory.

Beirut had urged the UN Security Council to tell Israel to halt its operation, but the Council took no immediate action.

The League will also consider at their meeting a proposal by Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to hold an Arab summit on the fighting, league officials said.

REUTERS AK KN1753