ARAB LEAGUE OFFERS NOTHING NEW FOR PEACE

Arab leaders spell out peace conditions with Israel
ALGIERS (AFP) - Arab leaders spelled out conditions for peace with Israel at the opening of a two-day summit expected to revive a plan to normalise ties with the Jewish state and discuss sluggish reforms. ....

Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said in opening remarks that any settlement with Israel rests on the return of occupied Arab land.

"It is necessary to reaffirm strongly that peace (with Israel) is the strategic choice of all the Arab world," and based on a land-for-peace exchange as stipulated by the Arab peace initiative, Bouteflika said.

He was referring to an initiative to normalise ties with Israel in return for its pullout from all Arab land, a deal that had been initially proposed by Saudi Arabia and endorsed at the 2002 Beirut summit but rejected by Israel.

The three-point draft, based on a revamped Jordanian proposal, states that peace with Israel also depends on the creation of an independent Palestinian state and a solution to guarantee the rights of Palestinian refugees.

"Based on the Arab peace initiative, Arab countries will therefore consider the Arab-Israeli conflict over and will set up normal ties with Israel within the framework of a comprehensive peace," a copy obtained by AFP said.

Algiers summit sidesteps glaring issues
A slimmed-down summit of Arab leaders began Tuesday in Algiers with a thin agenda that sidestepped some glaring Middle East issues. Rather than dramatically blazing a new path by calling for a normalization of ties with Israel before territorial issues are settled, the summit is expected to opt for "more of the same" in relation to Israel.

The head of the Arab League told Israel on Tuesday not to expect nations of the region to normalize ties without giving anything in return, as Arab leaders opened a summit here. Ahead of the summit, the leaders rejected a Jordanian proposal that they offer Israel diplomatic ties without Israel's first returning Gaza and West Bank lands, which would be a dramatic change in the Arabs' peace strategy.