KUWAIT, September 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Kuwait became the first Arab state to signal support for the U.S. strikes against Iraq, a U.K. daily newspaper reported Monday, September 2.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Kuwaiti foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed Sabah Salem al-Sabah said that: “While Saddam Hussein continues to keep Kuwaiti prisoners of war, and continues to televise threats against Kuwait, we consider the war against Iraq to have never ended."

According to the newspaper, Al Sabah’s comments serve as encouragement for a Washington administration struggling to convince the international community of the need for military action against the 12-year-sanction-hit country.

Saudi Arabia, which America used as a base during the 1991 Gulf War to drive Iraqi invaders from Kuwait, has so far refused to open its territory to American forces for a new war against Baghdad, said the Telegraph.

The paper quoted a Kuwaiti government official as saying: "If America asks for support Kuwait will give it. I expect the same response from all Gulf states. There may be the need publicly to be anti-war, but under-the-table deals are being struck."

Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will meet on Monday, September 2 in Jeddah to study U.S. threats against Iraq and Israeli terrorism, the GCC secretary general, Abdulrahman Al-Attiya said Saturday, August 31, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

The chief diplomats of the Gulf Arab monarchies will also review a host of issues to speed up unity between the six-nation alliance, Al-Attiya said in a statement.

The ministers will review the "situation between Iraq and Kuwait, and Iraq's implementation of the pertinent U.N. Security Council resolutions in light of increasing tension between Iraq and the United Nations," Attiya said.

The regular talks come amid "the increasing intensity of U.S. threats to launch a [military] strike against Iraq and the GCC opposition to such policies because of their negative and dangerous consequences on the security and stability of the region," Attiya added.

"The foreign ministers will give special focus to the developments in the Palestinian territories and the suffering of the Palestinian people as a result of the continued Israeli terrorism."

The GCC groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) who have individually all expressed opposition to a new war on Iraq.

Attiya said the meeting will also tackle relations with Iran in light of visits by GCC officials to Tehran and an expected visit by Iranian President Mohammed Khatami to the UAE.

On the internal front, the ministers will review military and media cooperation in addition to reviewing a number of ideas expressed by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz to accelerate cooperation in all fields, the statement said.