Arab ministers urge Rice to act on West Asia woes

DEAD SEA, Jordan, Dec 1 (Reuters) Moderate Arab nations urged US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today to do more to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and stabilise Iraq, with one official saying the region was near an ''abyss''.

Arab foreign ministers and officials meeting Rice in Jordan said economic and political development in West Asia would remain hamstrung until the Palestinians had a state and Iraq's escalating sectarian war was brought under control.

''The region is facing a real failure. The time is not to apportion blame,'' Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference at the Dead Sea on democracy and development in West Asia.

''We want to stand together to save the region because the region is at the abyss, whether in Iraq or in Palestine.'' Rice for her part sought to reach out to the ministers from Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

''Of course, we realise that many of you have strong and passionate opinions about US policy with regards to Iraq and Lebanon and the Palestinian territories,'' Rice said in prepared remarks for the meeting.

''At the same time, we all agree on the importance of reform and the need to move forward actively with a robust reform agenda.'' The United States has stressed what it sees as the need for political and economic reforms in the Arab world to defeat terrorism, a goal some nations have interpreted as meddling.

But Washington has lost influence amid Iraq's plunge into sectarian war following the US invasion in 2003.

Moderate Arab nations have also accused the United States of not doing enough to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which they regard as the core source of unrest in the region.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told Reuters after the meeting that the Arabs had given Rice a ''clear message'' that Washington had a ''a big responsibility and has to exert more effort to resolve these problems and end tensions''.

''Political development cannot come from a vacuum. Economic development depends on stability, which can only come by attaining peace,'' Aboul Gheit said.

Yesterday, Rice urged the Arabs ministers to find concrete ways to support Iraq's government, telling them they could not afford an Iraq that failed.

Her trip coincides with fresh US efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks following agreement of a shaky ceasefire in the Gaza Strip last week.

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