RIYADH, 17 March 2004 — Syrian President Bashar Assad will arrive here today for talks ahead of an Arab League heads of state summit later this month, an Arab diplomatic source said yesterday.

During his one-day visit, Bashar will discuss “the Arab situation, namely in Iraq and the Middle East, as well as recent developments in Syria,” the source said requesting anonymity.

The reference to “recent developments in Syria” concerned the Kurdish riots which swept through several towns and villages in northeast Syria over the weekend, and which the Kingdom denounced on Monday.

Bashar’s meetings in Saudi Arabia will also focus on the Arab summit in Tunis opening March 29, the source said.

Foreign ministers of the Arab League’s 22 members held talks earlier this month in Cairo to draw up a blueprint for radical reform of their organization, to be submitted to the two-day summit at the initiative of Saudi Arabia, Syria and Egypt.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher earlier responded to criticism of the Saudi-Egyptian-Syrian initiative saying the door was open for any other countries to join, according to Al-Watan Arabic newspaper.

He was speaking ahead of a possible further meeting between the three countries’ foreign ministers to prepare for the Tunis summit.

Maher denied suggestions the three countries were forming an “axis”, and said the three-way meeting was owing to nothing more sinister than the friendly relations between them.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met Bashar on Sunday in Damascus and discussed the need for Arab reform to come from within and not from outside the region, Egypt’s state television reported Monday.

The Arab foreign ministers earlier this month also covered a US plan for democratic reform in the Middle East, an issue the ministers decided to refer to their heads of state to discuss in Tunis.

The “Greater Middle East Initiative” has been widely rejected by Arab states, who insist that any reform cannot be imposed and must be internal.

Washington hopes to launch the scheme, which it says will bolster democracy in the Middle East, during a summit of the Group of Eight (G-8) industrialized nations in June.

The US says its initiative aims to encourage democratic reform and economic opening in the Arab world and other Muslim countries.

Seven Arab countries have presented written proposals for the reform of the Arab League, including Libya and Yemen, both of which suggest changing it into an “Arab Union”.

All of the written submissions agreed on the need for a collective will to implement League commitments, reform relations between Arab states, and ensure respect for each country’s sovereignty.

The most intriguing procedural issue is whether to do away with the consensus required on every decision taken and getting nations to abide by what does pass by majority vote.