Moussa: Arabs to back ME land-for-peace plan in Beirut

The Arab League will back a land-for-peace plan at its upcoming summit in an effort to halt spiralling violence in the Middle East, the organisation's Secretary-General Amr Moussa said yesterday.

Moussa, in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, said he believed peace could be secured within six months if Israel stopped seeking to impose its views on the Palestinians and Arab states.

"I believe that at the Arab summit in Beirut there will be a clear and unanimous position: land in exchange for peace. At that point, it will be up to Israel to decide.

"...Its (security) policy has failed and brings only new conflicts. Israel has sought from the start to impose its will and its idea of peace," he said.

The 22-member Arab League is due to meet on March 27-28. Arab foreign ministers held pre-summit talks in Cairo earlier this month and discussed a Saudi proposal calling for Israeli withdrawal from all Arab land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war in return for full normalisation of Arab ties with Israel.

Asked if he thought peace in the Middle East was possible, Moussa said: "Yes, even in six months, if the picture is clear and the basis for negotiation is concrete, in a climate of mutual trust".