SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, 1 March 2003 — Arab states were divided yesterday ahead of a weekend summit on the Iraqi crisis in this Red Sea resort, but they agreed on one thing — not to openly call on Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to step down.

Arab foreign ministers meeting here tasked a committee comprising eight of the 22 Arab League members to draft a clause on Iraq to be included in the summit’s final statement today.

Algeria, Lebanon, Libya, Syria and Yemen are backing Iraq’s demand for the summit to urge Arab states to refrain from providing any assistance to a US-led invasion, and to issue a strong message to Washington against an attack.

Gulf Arab states hosting large numbers of US troops want to avoid being portrayed as auxiliaries of a US attack, and have argued that responsibility should be borne by Iraq if it does not fully cooperate with UN weapons inspectors.

Arab League chief Amr Moussa said the foreign ministers were also discussing the possibility of sending a delegation to Baghdad and to UN Security Council to push for a peaceful settlement.

A source in the United Arab Emirates’ delegation told AFP it would propose a solution of the Iraq crisis “within an Arab framework and in coordination with the United Nations.”

Meanwhile, Baghdad’s pledge to scrap missiles outlawed by the United Nations drew praise yesterday from chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix and scorn from Washington and its allies in the buildup to possible war on Iraq.

“This is a very significant piece of real disarmament,” Blix said at UN headquarters in New York as Baghdad announced that it would begin destroying the Al-Samoud 2 missiles today. But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the move “represents the deception that we had predicted”, adding that Washington wanted “complete and total disarmament” of Iraq, which it accuses of hiding weapons of mass destruction.

Staunch US ally Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain also dismissed the Iraqi pledge, saying: “This is not a time for games.”

In Paris, however, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Baghdad’s offer “confirms that the inspections are yielding results” and strengthened France’s position urging tougher, continued inspections under a UN Security Council resolution passed unanimously in November.

“France’s choice — which is the choice of the majority of the international community — is today strengthened,” he said the day after the Security Council began debating a new US-backed resolution.

A second resolution “was not envisaged unless the situation reached a dead end,” De Villepin said. “That is not the case today. So there is no reason to abandon the peaceful route to Iraqi disarmament.”

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Moscow was prepared to wield its veto “where world peace and stability is at stake”, and just hours later Blair said he was confident there would be Security Council support for the resolution.

US President George W. Bush told USA Today that Iraq “would have disarmed” by now if Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had any intention of doing so, adding: “We will disarm him now.”

London and Washington are pushing for a vote by mid-March on the new resolution, which needs nine votes to be adopted while avoiding a veto.