KUWAIT CITY - Arab League chief Amr Mussa acknowledged "chaos" in Arab ranks over the Gaza crisis on Friday as foreign ministers gathered in Kuwait for a meeting overshadowed by an unofficial summit in Qatar.
The "Arab situation is in a very big chaos," Mussa told reporters as he entered the meeting, which was delayed for two hours.
"It is regrettable and harmful."
The ministers' meeting was supposed to prepare for an Arab summit on Gaza due to convene alongside a long-scheduled economic summit in Kuwait City on Monday.
Ministers discussed "steps that should be taken after Israel rejected UN Security Council Resolution 1860," that called for an immediate ceasefire, delegates said.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal called on the meeting to "look into the possibility of going back to the Security Council to try and issue another resolution to enforce ceasefire."
In a speech delivered during the closed-door session, Prince Saud also proposed the setting up of an Arab fund for the rebuilding of Gaza.
He called for no effort to be spared to stop the war on Gaza "because if it continues, it will have dangerous and far-reaching implications and consequences."
The Saudi minister also called on Arab countries to "start a serious and comprehensive dialogue with the new US administration," after President-elect Barack Obama takes office on January 20.
But the meeting was overshadowed by a regional summit hosted by Qatar over the objections of regional heavyweights Egypt and Saudi Arabia as well as the Palestinian leadership of president Mahmud Abbas.
The opposition of Egypt and Saudi Arabia ensured that the Qatari gathering was not an official meeting of the Arab League but several non-Arab countries including Iran and Turkey were also due to attend.
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