Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has hailed a peace drive by Arab states as marking a “revolutionary change”.

Israeli defence minister Amir Peretz today said a dormant Saudi initiative for Mideast peace could be a “basis for negotiations,” indicating a new basis for talks with the Palestinians after years of stalemate.

The annual Arab League summit was sharply divided even before it began in Sudan today, with late-night wrangling over the wording of the final declaration and the absence of a number of key leaders at a meeting meant to tackle the region’s tricky problems.

Saddam Hussein’s chief deputy, who has eluded capture since the US-led invasion of Iraq three years ago, purportedly called for Arab leaders to back Iraq’s Sunni-backed insurgency, in an audiotape broadcast today.

Police officers swarmed over Algiers, trucks were banned from the city and students were given an early holiday today as part of tight security in place for a summit of Arab leaders.

Jordan’s King Abdullah has proposed a new peace strategy that drops traditional Arab demands that Israel give up all land seized in the 1967 war and offers the Jewish state normalised relations with Arab countries.

Europe Correspondent Ann Cahill says Israel might yet face US pressure to take part in talks.

Iraq is expected to accept a UN resolution to disarm, Egypt’s foreign minister said early today.

It is still not clear when a newly-released tape showing Osama bin Laden was made.

Two Palestinians have died in an explosion in Jerusalem after Israeli police apparently thwarted their attempts to attack a shopping mall in the city.

The United States has urged the Israel Government to allow Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to attend this week’s Arab League summit in Lebanon.