Arab leaders meeting in Egypt say they oppose an attack on Iraq as a threat to Arab national security and declared their countries would not take part in any war.
The United Arab Emirates proposed that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and top aides should step down and go into exile -- the first time an Arab state has made an official call of this kind -- but the summit declined to discuss the idea.
Washington, threatening to attack Iraq for not ridding itself voluntarily of alleged weapons of mass destruction, has said removing Saddam could spare the volatile region another war, but Saddam has said he would rather die than go into exile.Arab states have in the past rejected proposals of exile as meddling in Iraq's affairs, and the final communique issued after the one-day summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh made no reference to the UAE's idea.