Mubarak to return home 'within hours'

Official sources said that President Hosni Mubarak would return home "within hours" after recovering from a surgical operation he underwent in Germany earlier this month. Nevertheless, Mubarak is expected to send Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif to sit in for him at an upcoming Arab Summit slated for 28 March in the Libyan city of Sert.

Preliminary summit meetings held on Tuesday witnessed sharp disagreements on the issue of inter-Palestinian reconciliation, with Syria requesting that all efforts in this regard be pursued under a collective Arab umbrella rather than being tasked solely to Egypt.

"The Egyptian reconciliation proposal targets Hamas, which is the only faction that refuses to sign on to it," said Youssef Ahmed, Syria's permanent representative to the Arab League.

The Arab League Council, however, declined the Syrian request. It also voiced support for the Arab peace initiative and approved a plan for collective Arab efforts to save Jerusalem, calling on the international community to boycott illegal Israeli aggression against Islamic and Christian holy sites in city.

Translated from the Arabic Edition.