Arab League to Discuss Strife in Occupied Territories

Arab League foreign ministers meet here today to review the Palestinian uprising in the Israeli-occupied territories.

A special high-level delegation, charged with coordinating support for Palestinians protesting against Israeli rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, will report to the meeting on talks with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.

Algeria has called for a full emergency Arab summit at the heads-of-state level.

The call is now supported by more than half the league’s membership.

Although the issue is not officially on the agenda, Arab League sources say any country can raise any subject it wishes and it is almost certain to be discussed.

Diplomats say it would now be extremely difficult to organize a summit before April 18, when the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan is due to begin.

The panel on the uprising, made up of envoys from Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Algeria, Tunisia, Iraq, the Palestine Liberation Organization and Arab League Secretary General Chedli Klibi, recently returned from a tour of the United States, Britain, France, the Soviet Union and China.

The members will meet this morning to put the finishing touches to their report, which will be presented to the full 21-member league in the afternoon. Other items on the agenda of the meeting include the Iran-Iraq War and U.S. attempts to close the PLO office at the United Nations in New York.