By Ali Khalil

DOHA, Mar 29, 2009 (AFP) - Arab leaders were due in Qatar on Sunday for their annual summit but hopes of putting on a show of regional unity were dimmed after Egypt's president announced he would not be attending.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was the first head of state from the 22-member Arab League to land in the Qatari capital Doha for the two-day summit starting on Monday, officials said.

But organisers were uncertain how many other leaders of the 22-member Arab League would attend and were left guessing whether Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir -- wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes committed in Darfur -- would be among them.

The Doha meeting had been expected to see Arab League states seeking to close ranks split largely over how to respond to Israel's 22-day onslaught on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, and also amid the growing influence of Shiite Iran in the region.

"Inter-Arab reconciliation figures high on the summit's agenda," Arab League deputy chief Ahmed bin Helli told AFP ahead of the two-day gathering.

A Qatari official voiced "hope that the Doha summit will serve to streamline Arab relations and relaunch a common Arab action that has a firm basis."

Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani urged foreign ministers meeting in Doha on Saturday ahead of the summit to strive for a unified front.

"We have to live up to our responsibilities and work towards closing ranks," he said.

But he appeared to lament a decision by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to shun the summit. Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit also ignored the preparatory meetings of foreign ministers.

"We would have liked him (Mubarak) to attend, but the decision is his, and we do respect his decision," he added.

Egypt, the largest Arab country in terms of population and a major regional powerhouse, will instead be represented by Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mufid Shehab.

"I can't say that our relations (with Egypt) are perfect, but there are roots for brotherly links," said Sheikh Hamad, whose tiny Gulf state is reproached for its strong links with Iran, and -- along with Syria -- for backing the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.

Sheikh Hamad insisted that Doha would not "take permission from anyone to have relations with Iran," when he was asked if Doha's links with Tehran were behind the tension with Egypt.

King Abdullah of oil kingpin Saudi Arabia met the presidents of Egypt and Syria on March 11 to promote reconciliation, two months after another ice-breaking mini-summit in Kuwait.

The two meetings allowed Western-backed Egypt and Saudi Arabia to improve contacts with Syria -- a major Arab ally of Iran -- which had worsened during the war on Gaza.

Cairo and Riyadh are staunch supporters of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, while Damascus and Doha back the Islamist Hamas, which routed Abbas's Fatah loyalists from Gaza in deadly factional fighting in June 2007.

Sudan's Beshir is meanwhile keeping everyone guessing whether he will attend the summit or not.

Officially, Sudan said Beshir will travel to Doha despite the ICC arrest warrant against him, but observers believe that Beshir will not turn up to avoid embarrassing his hosts.

Arab foreign ministers approved Saturday a draft declaration calling for the annulment of the ICC measures against Beshir and urging all Arab states to reject the arrest warrant.

The draft which will be presented to the leaders to discuss also warns Israel that the Middle East peace initiative, on offer since 2002, will not last for ever, and necessitates Israel's cooperation.

The Saudi-inspired plan offers the Jewish state full normalised ties in return for its withdrawal from the territories occupied in 1967.

But the prospects of peace could be complicated by the imminent return to power in Israel of Benjamin Netanyahu, whose right-wing Likud party rejects the creation of a Palestinian state.

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Copyright AFP 2009.