CAIRO, October 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa declared, Sunday, October 27, that Libya withdrew its threat to pull out from the pan-Arab group, adding the threat was a show of discontent with the group’s political performance.

“Libya is still a member of the Arab League, and will remain so. The official letter of pull out was addressed to the secretary General personally, as a show of discontent with the performance of the Arab league in serving Arab causes and preserving Arab rights,” Mussa said in comments aired by al-Jazeera Satellite Station.

Earlier Sunday, Mussa slammed the "impotence" of Arab countries in an address to a forum on Arab thought in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, overshadowed by Libya's threat to pull out of the 22-member pan-Arab organization.

"We are facing a critical situation and Arab societies are showing weakness politically, economically and perhaps intellectually, as they confront this challenge," said Mussa, who dashed to Tripoli Saturday, October 26, in an unsuccessful bid to secure a change of heart from Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.

"The most dangerous element harming [Arab countries] is the failure to find a formula or framework to achieve regional Arab development that would help us communicate with other societies.

"There is huge impotence," he said, without explicitly referring to Libya's threat to leave the League in protest at its failure to do more to help the Palestinians and other Arab causes.

The three-day "First Conference on Arab Thought", which opened Sunday, in Cairo, is organized by the Arab Thought Foundation of Prince Khaled, brother of Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal.

Discussions will focus on peace in the Middle East and relations between Arabs and the West, as well as the economy and democracy.

In Beirut, meanwhile, Lebanon's President Emile Lahoud proposed the adoption of "a series of steps" to ensure Arab solidarity, in a telephone call with Mussa over Libya's threat to pull out of the league.

Lahoud, current chairman of the Arab summit, "proposed a series of steps that should be adopted, in cooperation with all Arab states to assert that solidarity," an official source told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The official said Mussa called Lahoud earlier Sunday to inform the Lebanese president of his talks in Libya with Kadhafi Saturday.

"Lahoud asserted the need to consolidate the Arab cooperation witnessed at the Beirut summit in March, particularly in these delicate circumstances witnessed by the countries of the region," said the official.

After his meeting with Kadhafi, Mussa said Saturday that the Libyan leader rejected pleas to reconsider pulling out of the Arab League.

Tripoli gave no official explanation when it announced its latest divorce threat Thursday, October 24.

Mussa's spokesman Hishem Yusef said the League chief would "launch intensive consultations with Arab leaders over Kadhafi's demands."