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Islamabad to host summit to end turmoil in Middle East

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ISLAMABAD: The foreign ministers of seven Muslim countires were due to arrive in Pakistan late on Saturday to participate in a conference to be held in Islamabad on Sunday to discuss the situation prevailing in the Middle East.

The conference would be attended by the OIC secretary general and the foreign misiters from Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The main objective of the conference is to chalk out a joint strategy to end the conflict in the Middle East.

According to Pakistan foreign office spokesperson, Tasnim Aslam, the foreign ministers will prepare the ground for a summit of their leaders to be hosted in Saudi Arabia by King Abdullah later. However date of the summit has not been finalised yet.

"The meeting here will consider the Palestinian crisis, the situation in Iraq and the Iran-US tensions," She added.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz will open Sunday's gathering and the ministers will also call on President General Pervez Musharraf. Iran, Syria and the Palestinian Authority will not be attending the conference in Islamabad, but officials said they would be kept fully informed of the outcome of the deliberations.

The conference is an out come of Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf's recent visit to the Islamic Countries as he has been consistently saying that the unrest in the Middle East could spread worldwide.

Since the start of the year Musharraf has visited all the countries involved in Sunday's meeting, as well as Iran, Syria and the United Arab Emirates, as part of a plan to find out an amicable solution to the conflict Middle East.