Egyptian-Syrian summit in Cairo

The London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat daily said that an Egyptian-Syrian summit will be held between Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo by the beginning of next week under previous reports which say that there "are disputes between the two countries which emerged following Syria's reservation on the invitation extended by Egypt for a five-member Arab summit for the countries bordering Israel."

In its Saturday issue, the paper said the summit will discuss three main issues: adopting a united Arab stand to deal with the government of Barak, the results of Mubarak's talks in Washington, especially in regard of ideas debated to reactivate the Middle East peace process on all tracks and current preparations for convening an Arab summit.

Al-Sharq al-Awsat reported that it learned from well-informed Egyptian sources that Mubarak and al-Assad will seek to assert that, "There are no differences in the Syrian and Egyptian stances concerning moves to convene the Arab summit."