1.
GV PAN DOWN EXTERIOR OF Africa Hotel, Tunis.
0.08

2.
SV & CU Ministers arrive for meeting. (2 SHOTS)
0.21

3.
GV INTERIOR Ministers seated in conference hall.
0.29

4.
SV Secretary-General Chedli Klibi seated.
0.35

5.
CU Tunisian ministers.
0.40

6.
CU Saudi Arabian Minister.
0.44

7.
CU Ministers, including those from Bahrain, South Yemen and Lebanon. (3 SHOTS)
1.00

8.
CU & SV Ministers including those from Sudan, Libya, United Arab Emirates and Jordan. (4 SHOTS)
1.21

9.
GV Ministers seated.
1.26




Initials JS





Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: INTRODUCTION: The foreign Ministers of 21 members of the Arab League held their regular six-monthly meeting in Tunis on Monday (23 March). A number of problems which have caused disputes between individual members of the League were on the agenda for consideration.

SYNOPSIS: The meeting was held in the Africa Hotel in Tunis. This has been the headquarters of the Arab League since Egypt was suspended from membership two years ago, after signing a peace agreement with Israel. Before that, the meetings were held in Cairo.

The 21 members are Arab sovereign states and Palestine. The Council of the League is its supreme governing body. The Secretary-General body. The Secretary-General, Mr. Chedli Klibi, was involved at the same time in presiding over a four-day conference at which the four guerrilla movements in Eritrea agreed to end their fight for Eritrea agreed to end their differences and work together in their fight for Eritrean independence from Ethiopia. The League had recommended last July that they should get together and co-ordinate their objectives.

Sudan was expected to come under criticism for deciding to reestablish normal relations with Egypt. Other disputes among members involved Mauritania, which has accused Morocco of being behind the recent abortive coup in Nouakchott; allegations that Syrians were involved in a plot to assassinate the Prime Minister of Jordan; and the differing attitudes that member states take to the war between Iraq and Iran.