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| 11/05/2008 Arab foreign ministers holding crisis talks in Cairo on Sunday appealed for an end to violence in Lebanon after fierce clashes erupted in Mount Lebanon areas southeast of Beirut.
"In view of the danger of the situation in Lebanon, the council of ministers sends out an urgent appeal for an immediate end to violence in Mount Lebanon and other areas," Ahmed bin Hilli, assistant secretary general for political affairs, said reading from a statement. A final statement was due later.
Notably absent was Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem whose country said that this matter is purely Lebanese issue.
Syrian source said that Damascus believes that the only solution to the Lebanese crisis is by the dialogue, adding that the Arab initiative as a whole must be the base for any solution. The source said that Syria supports the Lebanese army praising its patriotic role in the country.
The meeting in Cairo follows days of lethal street battles in Lebanon which have stoked fears that a protracted political feud could break out into a repeat of the 1975-1990 civil war.
At the opening session, Djibouti's Foreign Minister Mahmud Ali Yussuf, whose country was chairing Sunday's session, told fellow ministers that "a number of steps and measures to resolve the situation in Lebanon have been put forward."
He called on the different parties in Lebanon to "exercise restraint and cooperate with Arab endeavors," stressing that the "Arab initiative for Lebanon is the only initiative on the table."
That initiative calls for the election of Lebanon's army chief General Michel Sleiman as president, the establishment of a national unity government and the holding of parliamentary elections. The Lebanese national opposition has always announced that it agrees on this initiative; however the ruling bloc in the country refuses to agree on forming a national unity government and hold elections.
Saudi Arabia, a key supporter and financier of the unconstitutional government of Fouad Saniora, had led calls for the meeting in the wake of the fighting. | 
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