Arab foreign ministers agreed at a meeting in Cairo today to help with the reconstruction of Lebanon.
Seventeen of the 22 Arab League members sent foreign ministers to the meeting, the first since a truce last week brought an end to a month of fighting between Israel and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbullah.
But Hizbullah-ally Syria's foreign minister was conspicuously absent from the event.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad irritated many of his fellow Arab leaders last week in a speech they read as critical of their conduct during the war.
Five of about 10 ministers who spoke in the opening session - from Algeria, Sudan, Tunisia, Yemen and the Palestinian territories - said they favoured a summit proposal by Saudi Arabia, which has offered to host the event in the Muslim holy city of Mecca.
The Kuwaiti foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammad al-Salem al-Sabah, told reporters on arrival in Cairo that his government had decided to set aside €625 million to help Lebanon rebuild the damage caused by over a month of Israeli attacks.
The Lebanese government has estimated the damage to civilian infrastructure will cost nearly €3 billion to repair.
In Tehran, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Iran also is working on an aid package to help.
But none of the Arab League member governments have offered to send troops to south Lebanon, for fear of being dragged into conflict with either the Israelis or Hizbullah.
The Arab foreign ministers also are discussing their plan to refer the Arab-Israeli conflict back to the UN Security Council, which they say has failed to fulfil its mandate to preserve international peace and security.