Lebanon not on agenda of Cairo meeting of Arab FMs

CAIRO - The political crisis in Lebanon will not be on the agenda of the Arab foreign ministers' conference in Cairo but will be discussed informally, Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said Wednesday.
"The Syrian-Lebanese crisis will not be on the agenda of Thursday's meeting. But since everybody is talking about it, there will be discussions on the issue," he told reporters.
Mussa said outgoing Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmud Hammud would not atend the meeting.
The Arab League session comes only three days after the pro-Syrian government in Beirut resigned under the weight of mass street protests since the February 14 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri.
Mussa said he not yet been informed whether Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara would take part in Thursday's meeting.
During their ordinary session, the foreign ministers are expected to focus their work on drawing up the agenda for the annual Arab summit, to be held March 22-23 in Algiers.

03/02/2005 17:17 GMT