The "emergency regional conference" was called by Saudi Arabia on instructions from King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah, Prince Saud said in a statement carried by the official SPA agency.

"The conference comes in response to the current circumstances and developments in Iraq, which affect the Iraqi people in particular, and the reperucussions on the countries of the region in general," he said.

Prince Saud, who made the announcement after a surprise visit to Damascus on Monday, did not name the countries which would take part in the meeting.

Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, Syria, Iran, all of which border Iraq, and Egypt held a regional conference on January 23 in Istanbul in a bid to prevent the US war on Iraq.

Kuwait, which provided a launchpad for US troops heading to Baghdad, also borders Iraq.

Following the fall of Baghdad, Saudi Arabia has been active diplomatically as a new situation emerges in the Gulf.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin held talks here Sunday with Prince Saud and both men agreed that the return of Iraq to Iraqi control must remain a priority.

De Villepin held similar talks in Cairo, Damascus and Beirut where he called for the return of UN arms inspectors to Iraq and the lifting of sanctions against Baghdad.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was to hold talks in Riyadh on Tuesday.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir was also due to arrive here for talks on Iraq with Fahd and Abdullah.

Riyadh will host Tuesday an extraordinary meeting of the foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states to discuss the aftermath of the war.

Prince Saud last week urged the United States to allow the Iraqi people to choose their own government and their own future and to end the occupation quickly.

SPACE.WIRE