IRAQ CRISIS: Greek diplomats are trying to arrange a special meeting of European Union foreign ministers and 13 candidates states to seek a common stance on the Iraq crisis. Greece currently holds the EU presidency.
EU diplomats said the meeting, hoped for the middle of this month, could be one of the last chances for a divided EU to unite around an appeal to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to disarm under the supervision of the United Nations or face military action.
One diplomat said Athens might also invite Iraq's neighbours, including Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia, to join the 28 in an effort to build the widest possible consensus ahead of any war led by the United States.
At the same time yesterday, the Arab League said it was holding high-level talks with the aim of convening an Arab summit earlier than scheduled amid concerns over a looming war.
"There are very serious discussions at a very high level on the possibility of bringing forward the date of the summit and holding a foreign ministers meeting in preparation for the summit," said Mr Hesham Youssef, spokesman for Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa.
The summit is scheduled to take place in the Manama, the capital of the Gulf State, Bahrain, on March 24th and 25th.
Most Arab states say they are opposed to any US-led war on Iraq and want a peaceful solution to the crisis over Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.
Bahrain is the headquarters of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet. The country has seen rising anti-US public sentiment and protests in recent months.
King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain, who held talks with Moussa in Cairo yesterday, is heading to Washington to discuss his country's concerns over a possible war.
The Greek Foreign Minister, Mr George Papandreou, was due to sound out Turkish leaders on both ideas on a visit to Ankara yesterday, the sources said.
The diplomatic moves come amid a public rift in the EU over the US threat of early military action against Iraq, highlighted by a pro-US letter signed by eight European leaders on Thursday.
Two EU diplomats said the Greek Prime Minister, Mr Costas Simitis, had raised with some leaders the possibility of an emergency EU summit on Iraq in February but no firm decision had been taken.
Without explicitly confirming reports of a possible summit, a German government spokesman, Mr Thomas Steg, made clear that the Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, who has been alone in rejecting war even with a UN mandate, would welcome such a meeting.
"We welcome this initiative by the Greek government. Of course the Chancellor will participate in such a summit," he told a routine briefing in Berlin.
"We have expressed in the past that it is our interest to come to a common European position . . . the Chancellor has made clear that besides a great amount of agreement, there are differences on several points."
Meanwhile, Mr Schröder told an election campaign rally in Hanover yesterday that his opposition to an Iraq war was supported by an overwhelming majority in Germany and Europe.
"Military force must not be a normal means of policy, it must remain something . . . that one can and must call a last resort and requires the most sensitive and careful reasoning if one has to decide to use it," he said.
He was aware he said of how hard it was to decide on military action and noted he had taken such decisions before, in apparent reference to his decision to commit German troops to the 1999 Kosovo war and the US-led war action in Afghanistan.
Officials in some EU capitals said their leaders had not been consulted about a summit, but the idea might make sense.
"If the presidency comes to the conclusion that a summit would help us in finding this unity, then of course we would participate," Mr Jan Store, director for European affairs at the Finnish Foreign Ministry, said. - (Reuters)