Khatami, right, shakes hands with Turkish Prime Minister, during their official meeting in Tehran

TEHRAN, January 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul called on Sunday, January 12, for Muslim and Arab countries to work together to avert a U.S. war in Iraq that he feared would have disastrous repercussions for the Middle East.

"We must undertake steps and seize this final chance to avoid a war in which the Iraqi people and all the people of the region will pay the price," Gul said at a press conference in Tehran, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

Grilled about his approving U.S. military inspectors to survey air bases and ports in Turkey that could be used in case of such war, Gull acknowledged his country's difficult position as a top U.S. military ally in the region.

"Each country must prepare for all scenarios and be ready for any eventuality," he said, while alluding to Turkey's reluctance to let U.S. troops pass through its territory to enter Iraq.

Stressing Turkey and Iran's wish to find a peaceful solution to the crisis over Baghdad's alleged secret weapons of mass destruction, Gul said: "If there is a military attack on Iraq, all the countries in the region will suffer."

Gul did not comment on whether his regional tour, which also took him to Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria, could lead to the sending of an envoy to Baghdad to seek a last minute breakthrough with Saddam Hussein.

"All the countries of the region must coordinate their actions to prevent a war, but the principal effort must be made by Iraq," Gul said.

Turkey and Iran are against war on Iraq

As the prime minister made the rounds in Iran, a Turkish state minister, Kursat Tuzmen, visited Baghdad with a message from Gul for Saddam who, in turn, handed over messages to be delivered to Ankara.

In Tehran, Gul held talks with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref and Foreign Minister Kamal Karazi.

IRNA quoted Aref as saying, "The Islamic Republic of Iran is totally opposed to an attack on Iraq. The Iraqi question must be resolved by peaceful means."

Aref called on Muslim and Arab countries to work together to find a peaceful solution to the problem posed by Washington's determination to rid Iraq of its alleged weapons of mass destruction.

"Experience shows that we cannot trust the United States. If it leads an attack on Iraq, there is no doubt that the turn of other countries in the region will also come," he said.

Khatami, meanwhile, was also quoted by IRNA reiterating Iran's strong opposition to a war on Iraq.

Khatami told Kuwait's foreign minister on Sunday that Iran is opposed to a war on Iraq despite the damage it and Kuwait suffered at Iraqi hands, state television reported.

Iraq fought a bloody and bitter war with Iran from 1980 to 1988, then invaded Kuwait in 1990.

"Despite what our two countries have undergone on the part of Iraq, Tehran does not favor a military attack against Iraq," Khatami was quoted as telling Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

He stressed "the need to maintain exchanges and contacts between the countries in the region" to found a peaceful solution to the Iraqi crisis.

In Riyadh on Saturday, January 11, Gul warned that little time was left to find a peaceful settlement to the Iraqi crisis but said states in the region were formulating an anti-war initiative.

Mubarak to visit Saudi Arabia, Assad to visit Iran

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said earlier Sunday that the Turks had proposed sending an envoy to see Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Mubarak, who is also to visit Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, January 14, did not say if he was referring to Turkish state minister Kursat Tuzmen, who arrived in Baghdad Friday at the head of a delegation of about 400 businessmen saying he was carrying "Turkish proposals concerning the current situation" to Saddam.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is also to visit Tehran on Wednesday, January 14, for talks on the standoff between Iraq and the United States, a foreign ministry spokesman said Sunday.

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah and Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmed al-Fahd al-Sabah arrived in Tehran on Saturday.

On arrival in Tehran Saturday Sheikh Sabah called the situation in Iraq "very dangerous" as the U.S. threat of a new war on Baghdad cast a pall on the region.

Before leaving for Iran, he said he hoped a U.S.-led war on Iraq could be averted and that political change in Baghdad would take place "naturally."