BEIRUT, March 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Arab League chief Amr Mussa joked Saturday, March 23, about Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's wish to attend next week's Arab summit, insisting the Arabs would study the matter, news agencies reported.

"You are surely asking this question as a joke," he responded with a laugh to a reporter asking him about Sharon's interview with the Washington Post on Saturday, March 23, in which Israel's hawkish leader said he would like to attend the Arab summit in Beirut, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

However, Mussa added: "If Sharon wanted to come, we will study whether we can allow him to do so."

"And if he did attend, we will consider if we will allow him to go back," he said, provoking a round of applause among Arab journalists. Mussa was referring to the Washington Post interview in which Sharon said "I don't know if he [Arafat] is going to Beirut. We have not yet decided whether to let him go."

Sharon said that he would like to attend the Arab summit in Beirut next week to outline his views on Middle East peace. "In talking to the Americans, I suggested that I'll go to Beirut to talk to the Arabs about what might be achieved and I would welcome an American initiative to advance such a move," he said.

Washington has urged Israel to seriously consider allowing Arafat to attend the Arab summit.

Sharon said Tuesday, March 19, Arafat would be free to leave the Palestinian territories only after a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians and warned that he could be barred from returning if he uttered "incitements to violence" or "terrorist operations" were launched against Israel in his absence.

The Beirut summit is to focus on a Saudi proposal, which has been welcomed by Washington, to normalize relations with Israel in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territories occupied since the 1967 war.

Sharon expressed guarded interest in the Saudi proposal. "What's interesting is the vision of peace and normalization with all the Arab world. But there appears to be a precondition - Israeli withdrawal to the '67 borders. Israel will not be able to do that if it wants to survive," he said.

However, Sharon suggested a three point plan of his own starting with a complete ceasefire followed by confidence-building measures in line with blueprints worked out by U.S. CIA Director George Tenet and former U.S. senator George Mitchell.

This will be followed by a long-term interim agreement granting the Palestinians territorial continguity without naming final borders and finally, the final borders between the two states would be determined in the spirit of UN resolutions 242 and 338.

Meanwhile, Jordan's Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher on Saturday, March 23, dismissed media speculation on the Saudi's Mideast peace initiative, saying a final text of the plan would only be completed at the Arab summit.

"The press has published nothing but hypotheses on this subject. The initiative will be submitted to the summit and a committee will write up the text which will be submitted for approval to the leaders," Moasher told reporters upon arriving in Beirut for the March 27-28 summit of Arab leaders.

Moasher was responding to the reported leaking of a draft of the groundbreaking Saudi peace proposal to Lebanon's As-Safir newspaper on Saturday.

As-Safir said the initiative, full details of which had not previously been made public, provides for "normal peaceful relations" with Israel in return for an Israeli pullout from Arab lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

The draft of the proposal, entitled "Palestinian File", also calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, finding a "just solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees and encouraging the Israeli public to seize the Arab peace offer."

The newspaper notes that the Saudi initiative said nothing about any "right to resistance" or a "backing of the intifada," which has been raging since September 2000.

It said the initiative will be presented as an "independent resolution" for adoption at the two-day Arab summit, which begins Wednesday, March 27, at the luxury sea-front Phoenicia hotel under tight security.

The paper quoted the prince as suggesting that Israel give back all Arab territory captured in the 1967 Middle East War in exchange for normal ties with its Arab neighbors.