* Arab summit to seek joint stand on Bashir indictment * Egypt's Mubarak will not attend (Adds details throughout) By Andrew Hammond DOHA, March 28 (Reuters) - The international arrest warrant for Sudan's president will top the agenda of an Arab summit next week, which he may attend despite his indictment for war crimes, but Egypt is snubbing a meeting meant to heal inter-Arab wounds. Sudan's Omar Hassan al-Bashir has made trips to Egypt, Eritrea, Libya and Ethiopia over the past two weeks, after the warrant was issued by the International Criminal Court accusing him of masterminding atrocities in Darfur. Qatar, which hosts a major U.S. military base, said last week it had faced unspecified pressure not to receive Bashir but nevertheless repeated an invitation for him to attend. "The Palestinian issue and Sudan's situation and a stand on the international court ... will be at the forefront of issues the summit will discuss," Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani told an Arab foreign ministers' meeting. Amnesty International called in a statement for leaders of the 22-member Arab League to enforce the indictment, citing Arab appeals to international law over Israel's offensive in Gaza this year which killed around 1,300 Palestinians. Arab League officials in Doha said it was not clear if Bashir would turn up in the Gulf state. Gulf countries are close allies of Washington, traditionally relying on U.S. military support. Some host U.S. forces. EGYPTIAN SNUB But attempts to promote the meeting as a reconciliation summit after deep and public rifts over Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict received a blow with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak apparently deciding not to attend. Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit did not attend the ministers' meeting on Saturday and Egyptian state agency MENA said Egypt would send a junior minister to the summit who represented Egypt at the Arab summit in Damascus last year. Egypt and Saudi Arabia pulled out of the Syria meeting. The two Arab heavyweights are among the Arab countries which are opposed to Iranian influence in the region, citing the Islamic Republic's backing for Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, and Lebanon's Hezbollah, and blame Syria for facilitating this. Israel's offensive in Gaza exposed the divisions, with Qatar hosting a meeting with Hamas figures, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and a number of Arab leaders in January to discuss the fighting. Egypt and Saudi Arabia refused to attend. Syria's President Bashar al-Assad met Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh this month to try to heal the wounds ahead of the summit. Saudi officials say the king will attend in Doha. The summit agenda includes a special session where Arab leaders are to discuss the disputes. An analyst in Qatar who asked not to be named because he is close to the Qatari officials said Egypt's new snub stemmed from rancour over the Gaza summit in January and a rival Arab economic summit in Kuwait. Egypt vigorously opposed any recognition of the Doha meeting on Gaza as an Arab summit and scuppered Qatari efforts to have it mentioned in the final declaration of the Kuwait summit. The rhetoric on Saturday suggested this week's meeting -- in Mubarak's absence -- will lean towards resolutions viewed as too provocative by conservative U.S. allies Egypt and Saudi Arabia. (Additional reporting by Aziz Kaissouni in Cairo; Editing by Louise Ireland)
Israeli soldiers push away a group of protesters made up of Palestinians, Israelis and international activists during a demonstration against Israel's controversial barrier in the West Bank village of Ma'asarah, near ...
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