TUNIS, July 29 (AFP) - Three Arab foreign ministers began consultations with their Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari here Thursday over an appeal by Baghdad for an Arab force to provide protection for a new UN mission to the country.
The foreign ministers of Algeria, Bahrain and Tunisia were appointed in May to hold consultations on the situation in Iraq by the 22-member Arab League, whose Secretary General Amr Mussa was also attending the closed-door talks.
Zebari, who arrived in Tunis on Tuesday, was expected to review the security situation in Iraq one month after the handover of power by US-led occupying forces to the interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, an Arab diplomat here told AFP.
A Security Council resolution last month provided for the establishment of a dedicated international force to provide protection for UN staff in Iraq.
International UN personnel quit Iraq in the wake of a massive bomb attack at the UN headquarters in Baghdad last August that claimed 22 lives including that of the top UN envoy to Iraq, Brazilian Sergio Vieira de Mello.
Veteran Pakistani diplomat Ashraf Jehangir Qazi is to replace him.
Last week, Allawi called on other Arab countries to send troops to his country to help protect the UN mission when it resumes work.
At a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, Allawi said: "We asked Egypt to make the necessary contacts with leaders of some Arab and Islamic countries to contribute forces to protect the UN mission."
Mussa had previously said that Arab soldiers could not go to Iraq until US-led forces had left the country.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the Arab diplomat said the troika was not authorized to make decisions but would hold simple consultations ahead of a meeting of the League's ministerial council in September.
At the Arab League summit in May, held in Tunis, Arab countries refused to send troops to Iraq under the supervision of the US-led coalition there. For its part Iraq did not want neighboring Arab countries -- Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait -- to contribute to an eventual Arab contingent.
On Wednesday, a spokesman for Mubarak's office said Egypt did not want to take part in an international protection force for a UN mission in Baghdad.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has indicated that the new UN envoy would be based in the Iraqi capital despite the security situation, which has kept him from sending international UN personnel back to the country.
The UN humanitarian mission for Iraq is currently based in neighboring Jordan.