Arab League (AL) Secretary General Amr Moussa revealed Friday that the international Quartet and an Arab group met here earlier in the day on means of reviving the peace process.

During the meeting, the Quartet grouping the U.S., the UN, the EU and Russia and the Arab group in charge of activating the Arab peace initiative agreed on continuing consultations and contacts in this regard, said Moussa who was in the Egyptian Red Sea resort here for the just-ended two conferences on Iraq.

According to media reports, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, U. S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, representing the Quartet, attended the meeting.

On the Arab side, AL chief Moussa and foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Qatar were present at the meeting.

Moussa also revealed that the Arab side has held talks with various international parties on the sidelines of the two Iraq conferences, stressing the importance of mutual steps not unilateral ones to revive the Mideast peace process.

Meanwhile, Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit also confirmed the Quartet-Arab group meeting, saying that the peace process and means of activating it was discussed during the talks.

The two sides agreed to meet again in the course of this month, he added.

Asked about the Quartet's response to the Arab peace initiative, Abul-Gheit told the press that "Arabs have given the Quartet from two to three months to respond to the initiative. We would then meet to decide which option to consider."

Members of the Quartet completely understand the Arab stance on not amending their peace initiative, Abul-Gheit stressed.

The Arab peace initiative, first approved by the AL in its 2002 Beirut summit, calls for Israel's pullout from Arab land occupied in the 1967 Middle East War and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in return for the normalization of ties with Arab states.

At a meeting of 13 foreign ministers of newly-formed Arab peace initiative committee on April 18 in Cairo, Egypt and Jordan was designated as the only members of an Arab committee to contact Israel on activating the initiative.

A ministerial delegation or working group, which comprises Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the Palestinians, Qatar, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco and Moussa, was also formed to contact international communities for the purpose.

Source: Xinhua