Arab League meets in Cairo, Amr Moussa calls for Palestinian reconciliation

"We call on our Palestinian brothers to hold an immediate reconciliation meeting," Mussa told foreign ministers from the 22-member pan-Arab bloc seeking a response to Israel's five-day bombardment of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

The Israeli offensive has killed at least 390 people, including 42 children, and wounded more than 1,900 others since Saturday. Gaza-based militants have continued to fire their rockets, killing four Israelis.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said Arab nations could not "extend their hand" to the Palestinians as long as they remained divided between Hamas in Gaza and president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah in the occupied West Bank.

"It's time for Palestinian factions to hold a decisive meeting that will lead to (forming) a government of national unity," Faisal said.

Hamas, which Israel says it is targeting for firing rockets at the Jewish state, has controlled the Gaza Strip since violently ejecting Fatah followers in June 2007.

The Islamists won Palestinian elections in 2006 but have since been boycotted by much of the West for refusing to recognise Israel.

Hamas pulled out of Egyptian-sponsored Palestinian reconciliation talks in November that were aimed at forming a non-factional Palestinian cabinet that would be acceptable to the international community.

Israel's pounding of Gaza began following the expiration on December 19 of a six-month truce with Hamas, also mediated by Egypt, and a renewal of Gaza-based rocket fire.

The League talks were taking place as Israel said it was mulling proposals for a truce in Gaza but ruled out a French-proposed temporary halt.

Palestinian ambassador to Cairo Nabil Amr said the League talks would seek to put a resolution before the United Nations Security Council condemning the violence and calling for an end to the bloodshed.

Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said the Palestinian leader was also in contact with members of the Security Council "in a bid to obtain a resolution ... as soon as possible."

While Arab public opinion is firmly against Israel's strikes, with tens of thousands taking to the streets to protest, Arab leaders have so far failed to take any decisions on the crisis.

"Arab nations could do a lot against Israel, but as they are divided, unfortunately they won't do anything," Mustapha Kamel al-Sayed, political science professor at Cairo University, told AFP.

Reflecting popular displeasure with the lack of Arab action, several protesters were arrested in front of the Arab League headquarters in downtown Cairo on Wednesday.

A Gulf Cooperation Council summit involving Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates held in Muscat on Tuesday deferred any decision on Gaza to the Cairo meeting.

Gulf regimes and Egypt have already stressed that the Palestinians should first resolve their own internal divisions.

Wednesday's League meeting will also discuss a Qatari proposal to hold an emergency Arab summit in Doha on how to deal with the Gaza crisis.

League official Hisham Yussef said that 10 Arab countries had officially accepted the idea of an extraordinary summit, with 14 required for a summit to be convened.

However, Egypt, which has been criticised by the likes of Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah for alleged complicity in the Gaza strikes and for not completely opening its Rafah crossing with Gaza, has said a summit is premature.

The Arab League, often a showcase more for divisions than displays of unity, will examine a report on the situation in the Gaza Strip before proposing an action plan, Arab diplomats said.
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