CAIRO, July 20 (AFP) - Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari urged his country and its neighbours to establish rules of good conduct, as their foreign ministers gathered here Tuesday on the eve of a meeting expected to focus on security.
"The neighbouring countries can help Iraq by not adopting a position of indifference about what's going on," Zebari said at Cairo airport, referring to a deadly insurgency sparked after Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled last year.
"We can also adopt rules of neighbourliness since we already look out for the interests of our neighbours and don't threaten their national security," he said, appealing to the states to protect their borders to halt fighters from entering Iraq.
The gathering on Wednesday will be the first time the foreign ministers from Iraq, five bordering countries and Egypt have met since a US-led coalition transferred power to an interim Baghdad government last month.
The group -- which comprises Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Turkey as well as Egypt -- met several times before the handover, but this is the first time Cairo, a major Middle East power broker, is playing host.
"This meeting is very important, since a degradation of the situation in Iraq would have repercussions on the whole region," Zebari later said after preparatory talks with Egypt's new foreign minister, Ahmed Abu el-Gheith.
He said Baghdad was looking for "concrete translation of the verbal statements of support and solidarity with Iraqis" and raised the issue of Arab troops lending a hand in the strife-torn country.
The new Iraqi government is encouraging Arab and Islamic countries to contribute troops to the multinational force in Iraq, but havs made it clear it prefers Iraq's neighbours not participate.
Egypt has repeatedly said it will not send any troops to Iraq.
Both the caretaker government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and the US-led multinational forces have blamed most of the attacks on foreign fighters and those allegedly linked to the Al-Qaeda terror network such as Jordanian-born Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.
They have repeatedly accused Syria and Iran of failing to stop insurgents from entering Iraq to carry out attacks.
Allawai is also expected to meet here Wednesday with the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, who also arrived Tuesday on a 24-hour visit.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal also met Tuesday evening with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ahead of the gathering.
UN chief Kofi Anan's special representative for Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, is expected to sit in on the discussions.