CAIRO, September 4 (IslamOnline & news Agencies) - Arab foreign ministers and envoys opened a meeting Wednesday to discuss U.S. threats to invade Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how to end the war in Sudan.

The top diplomats met at Arab League headquarters in Cairo for the talks, which the league says are taking place "in the context of extremely critical and dangerous circumstances for the Arab world," Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Ministers gathered in Cairo called Wednesday for rapid action and a "clear signal" to prevent a U.S. strike on Iraq by promoting talks for the return of UN arms inspectors to Baghdad.

"We insist on deploying quick efforts to avoid a strike and to find a solution through dialogue with the United Nations," Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said at the opening of a two-day meeting of foreign ministers, AFP reported.

Such a dialogue would be aimed at getting Iraq to readmit arms inspectors who were expelled four years ago, he added.

"The Arab League fears that dangers against Iraq, its people and stability will arise" from a U.S. military strike, Mussa told the ministers and other senior diplomats from 21 Arab states and the Palestinian Authority, AFP added.

He was echoing remarks in the opening speech by Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hamoud, the meeting chairman, who said "any aggression, any threat against any Arab state is a threat to all Arab states.

"And we have to take a clear and strong Arab position, and send a clear and united message in this regard," Hamoud said.

"We reject the threat directed against it (Iraq) and we think that the solution consists of resuming dialogue between it and the United Nations," he added.

UN resolutions adopted since Iraq's 1990 invasion of its oil-rich neighbor, Kuwait, call for Baghdad to dismantle programs for nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in return for the lifting of 12-year-old trade sanctions.

Iraq said Tuesday, September 3, 2002 it was ready to work with the United Nations to resolve its standoff with the U.S.

If "anybody can have a magic solution so that all the issues are being dealt with together equitably, reasonably ... we are ready to cooperate with the United Nations and explain our position in a reasonable manner," Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said Tuesday, AFP reported.

The White House reacted by saying it doubted Baghdad was sincere about the return of the UN inspectors.

U.S. President George W. Bush has been calling for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, whom he accuses of developing weapons of mass destruction, such accusations were not yet proved by any source.

Wednesday's meeting was also to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how to end the 19-year-long civil war in Sudan.

Mussa called for a ceasefire in Sudan, where renewed fighting has erupted in the past month despite unprecedented peace negotiations in Kenya. He also accused Israel of blocking all efforts for peace with the Palestinians.

The meeting was preceded by private talks between several foreign ministers and Palestinian international cooperation minister Nabil Shaath, all tasked with following up on Arab pledges of support for the Palestinian uprising.

Shaath called on his Arab colleagues to increase financial support to the Palestinians, and briefed them on "the tragic situation in the Palestinian territories," according to a delegate who attended the meeting.

However, no statement was issued after the meeting of the so-called follow-up committee, which delegates said discussed unpaid financial support to the Palestinian Authority and the Arab peace initiative adopted in Beirut in March.

Ministers from Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Algeria, Oman, Morocco, Yemen, and Bahrain and League Secretary General Amr Mussa attended the meeting of the league's committee to follow up the decisions of Arab summits.

The league pledged in March to give the Palestinian Authority 330 million dollars over six months, but according to a league report so far only 137 million had been received.

Countries that had paid included Saudi Arabia with 46 million dollars, Kuwait with 30 million, the United Arab Emirates with 10.7 million, Algeria with 10 million, Qatar with 9 million, Iraq with 8.7 million, Oman with 6.6 million, Egypt with 4.6 million, Bahrain with 4 million, Yemen with 3.3 million, Morocco with 517,000 and Sudan with 6,663, AFP said.

Of 150 million additional dollars pledged to two Arab funds, only three million had been paid from Oman.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hamoud told the follow-up committee that he had told Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller Tuesday that the Arab initiative adopted in Beirut was the reference for any peace moves, according to an Arab delegate.

Moeller was in Cairo on Tuesday to plug a European Union initiative for Arab-Israeli peace.