LONDON, March 24 (Islamonline.net & News Agencies) - Prisoners of war in Iraqi hands will be treated in accordance with "the teachings of Islam," Iraq's Foreign Minister Naji Sabri told the BBC on Monday.

Sabri, in Egypt to rally Arab governments against what he called U.S. and British "colonialism, neo-colonialism and war," said Islamic principles took precedence over the Geneva Convention.

"First of all, we are committed to the teachings of Islam. We are faithful Muslims. We take care of our prisoners of war in accordance with our teachings of Islam," he told BBC radio's The World At One program.

"We are committed first of all to the teachings of Islam, and second we are committed to the conventions of Geneva in dealing with the prisoners of war," he stressed, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"We are the people who created law when the grandfathers of Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush (British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President George W. Bush) were living like animals in the caves," he said.

Sabri left Baghdad under heavy bombardment to travel via Syria to the Egyptian capital Cairo where the 22-nation Arab League was meeting to try and reach consensus over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

He spoke to the BBC amid U.S. and British outrage that five captured U.S. soldiers had been shown on Iraqi television in a weekend broadcast that also included footage of four U.S. corpses.

Iraqi prisoners were shown on TV Stations and interviewed by foreign reporters since the second day of the invasion campaign.

Earlier Monday, the representative in France of the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera defended the decision to broadcast Iraqi pictures of U.S. prisoners-of-war, saying the criticism from some quarters smacked of double standards.

"For 10 years pictures of Palestinian prisoners have been shown all over the world, and in the Gulf everyone has been watching images of Iraqi prisoners kneeling in humiliation," said Michel Kik.

Kik was summoned for an interview Monday with the head of the Higher Audiovisual Council (CSA), France's broadcast watchdog, after Al-Jazeera on Sunday showed state Iraqi TV pictures of American solders being questioned in captivity.

"Why just me? Why aren't the representatives of other international channels who broadcast pictures of Iraqi prisoners being summoned as well?" he asked.

Meanwhile, Arab foreign ministers discussed Monday a strongly-worded draft resolution opposing the invasion of Iraq and calling for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. and British forces.

The draft, circulated by the Arab League secretariat, "considers the U.S.-British attack on Iraq as an armed aggression that aims at occupying a member state of the Arab League and the United Nations, in violation of international law and the UN charter."

It calls for "an immediate withdrawal of U.S.-British forces aggressing Iraq."

Qatar's Foreign Minister Hamad Bin Jassem Al-Thani pulled out of the meeting discussing the draft document, but denied the move was prompted by disagreement.

"I have a prior commitment," he said. "But I think these meeting are not useful, they are organized to appease the Arab public opinion."

Diplomatic sources said it was highly unlikely that Washington's other Arab allies, in particular Bahrain and Kuwait, would agree on the text.

Sixteen foreign ministers, including Iraq's Naji Sabri, were attending the meeting of the 22-member Arab League, the first Arab gathering since the war began last Thursday.

Speeches made at its opening by the Lebanese and Libyan ministers supported the draft.

Lebanon's Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud called on the UN Security Council to seek "a halt to the aggression," and urged "the immediate withdrawal" of US and British troops from Iraq.

Libya's African Unity Minister Ali Triki paid tribute to the "heroic resistance of Iraq's people and army". His reference to an "occupation" triggered sustained applause from fellow ministers and officials.