Report: Arab Visit to Baghdad Postponed

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- An Arab peace mission aimed at preventing war in Iraq was in doubt Thursday after Egypt's news agency reported that its visit to Baghdad had been postponed.

The delegation was to meet in Bahrain on Thursday with the king, Sheik Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, and then travel the following day to the Iraqi capital.

Early Thursday, however, Egypt's Middle East News Agency said it had learned that the meeting with the Bahraini king had been canceled and "the delegation also postponed its visit to Baghdad."

The agency said the secretary-general of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, was contacting "concerned parties" to determine "if the delegation would go to Baghdad."

The agency gave no indication why the trip was postponed. But the announcement suggested that the Iraqi leadership may not want to receive an Arab delegation if it urged Saddam Hussein to make concessions to the United Nations or even step down, as has been proposed by some Gulf countries.

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The delegation, however, has not publicly endorsed calls for Saddam to step down and leave the country. On Monday, Syrian President Bashar Assad predicted that Saddam would refuse to accept the delegation's proposals - regardless of what they are.

He told the Syrian parliament that the Arab League would end up "legitimizing the war that will take place."

During an Arab summit earlier this month in Egypt, leaders agreed to send a high-ranking delegation to the U.N. Security Council and Iraq in a last-ditch effort to avert war.

The delegation, which included the foreign ministers of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Tunisia, Bahrain as well as Moussa, went to New York and held talks with member states of the council.