KUWAIT CITY, Jan 20: Arab leaders remained at odds on the Israeli invasion of Gaza on Tuesday after an economic summit in Kuwait at which they failed to set up a fund for the reconstruction of the battered Palestinian enclave.

“The Arab position is still in disarray and tense ... Things are not as good as we want it to be,” Arab League chief Amr Mussa told a press conference at the end of the two-day summit.

“We had to be content with this statement (on Gaza) because of disruptions in inter-Arab relations ... We need your prayers,” he said, referring to a brief statement on Gaza.

“We have not mentioned the (Arab) peace initiative but it still exists,” Mussa said, adding it would not remain on the table forever.

Leaders of Arab states Saudi Arabia and Egypt on one hand and of Syria and Qatar on the other met on Monday and were reported to have sorted out differences exposed by Israel’s deadly 22-day invasion of the Gaza Strip.

But Arab foreign ministers, who met just ahead of the closing session, failed to reach consensus on the Gaza Strip, Iraq’s foreign minister said.

“We held a closed-door session to discuss the final statement on Gaza ...

We have not reached a conclusion because of time constraints and some positions,” Hoshyar Zebari said.

Diplomatic sources told AFP the differences focused on a mechanism for spending the reconstruction money amid Palestinian divisions and over whether to renew support for the Saudi-inspired Arab peace initiative.

An Arab summit hosted by Qatar and attended by 13 Arab nations on Friday called for scrapping the peace initiative which pledges normalisation of ties with Israel in exchange for its withdrawal from occupied Arab land.

Mussa said an attempt by Qatar to include the resolutions of that summit in the Kuwait Declaration was rejected.

In the statement on Gaza, Arab leaders pledged “all forms of support for the reconstruction of Gaza” but failed to agree on setting up an anticipated two-billion-dollar fund for the impoverished Palestinian territory.

They vowed, however, to “provide all forms of support for the reconstruction of Gaza” but made no reference to a mechanism for reconstruction. Arab leaders also said they “welcome all contributions pledged so far by Arab countries.” Saudi Arabia on Monday pledged one billion dollars for Gaza, while Qatar last week donated 250 million dollars. There were no other contributions from other Arab countries.

The Arab world itself has been divided between supporters of Hamas, which rules Gaza, and backers of Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas. The final session of the Arabs’ first ever economic summit gave a rundown of the agreements: to launch a customs union in 2010, to set up a pan-Arab power grid and a rail network project.

They issued the Kuwait Declaration which called for “adopting monetary and fiscal policies to enable Arab nations to face the consequences of the global financial crisis.” Arab countries have incurred losses of 2.5 trillion dollars due to the financial and economic turmoil, Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Sabah said last week.—AFP