Kuwait's Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah said Sunday that Kuwait has called on GCC foreign ministers to hold an extraordinary meeting in the emirate.

The proposed meeting would focus on the latest developments and circumstances in the region, especially the ongoing US-led war against Iraq, said Sheikh Sabah, who is also the first deputy prime minister of the oil-rich emirate.

Upon his arrival on Sunday evening, GCC Secretary General Abdelrahman Bin Hamad Al-Atiyya, who is heading a host of secretariat staff and officials, voiced the GCC's keenness on ending the suffering of the Iraqi people and on ensuring humanitarian aid to them.

GCC states were not party in the Iraq war, Atiyya said, stressing GCC states' solidarity with Kuwait and rejection of any threat to its security and sovereignty while underlining the need to safeguard Iraq's independence and territorial integrity.

Meanwhile, Gulf diplomatic sources were quoted by the official KUNA news agency as saying that the one-day meeting will work to strengthen the united front of the Gulf states in regard to the Iraq war.

GCC, a political and economic alliance established in 1981, groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

(Xinhua News Agency April 8, 2002)