Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher urged Wednesday Arab League member-states to find a "new vision" to save their grouping, which emerged more divided than ever from the US-led war in Iraq.
Officials at the Cairo-based league meanwhile said that proposals were being floated on how to reform the 22-member organization, with some taking inspiration from the European Union.
"We must not change or replace the Arab League, but undertake reforms which would help avoid its negative aspects," Maher said in remarks published in Al-Ahram and other government-run newspapers.
There are "proposals from several Arab members, including Saudi Arabia, Libya and Egypt to develop the Arab League," Maher said.
Including close allies of the United States and maverick Arab states, the organization emerged more divided than ever from the diplomatic standoffs which preceded the war in Iraq.
But Maher said that despite its negative points, no member-state was looking to do away with the organization. "Egypt has not seen any Arab country that is determined to destroy the Arab League," he said.
He added that differences between Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa and an Arab country he did not specify had largely been resolved, in an apparent allusion to Kuwait, which served as a launchpad to the US-led invasion of Iraq on March 20.
In the run-up to the war, Kuwait had accused Mussa of defending the regime of Saddam Hussein, while Kuwait's hosting of US and British forces had angered fellow Arab states.
Divisions notably emerged when large majorities in the league passed resolutions expressing opposition to the war and pledging no support to the invaders, angering the few Gulf Arab states hosting coalition troops.
According to a source close to the league, Kuwait and other countries had "tried under pressure from the United States to call for an end to the Arab League, or for it to be weakened."
However, the source said most members remained convinced that it was better to "work to improve and change the structures" of the league, which was founded in 1945.
Mussa has just completed a tour of Arab countries where he spent much of his time discussing the organization's future.
One Arab diplomat said the proposals being considered included amending the league's charter, voting procedures and action mechanisms.
"One of the proposed ideas is to follow the European Union model, by giving member countries the choice of adhering or not to different cooperation agreements, economic, cultural or others," he said, requesting anonymity.
Under the current framework, members are bound by a series of agreements that nonetheless have not been implemented for years.
One is the Joint Arab Defense Pact which in theory would have obliged members to come to the rescue of Iraq during the war.
The league's deputy secretary general, Nureddin Hashad, said a working group of legal and political experts would begin meeting in June to study various proposals.
These experts are to draft a plan for a "new Arab League" that they will present at the next summit of heads of state in Tunis in March 2004.
Among the proposals are "the creation of an Arab parliament and the holding of a referendum in Arab countries, just like those organized by the European Union, asking the people what they want from the Arab League."
He said there were also proposals to set up an Arab court of justice as well as a body tasked with resolving conflicts.
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