Arab foreign ministers kicked off an emergency meeting on Friday to address the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, amid deep rifts in the Arab world.

Minutes before entering the meeting in Kuwait, Arab League (AL) Secretary General Amr Moussa told reporters that "The situation in Arab countries is quite chaotic. It is regrettable and harmful."

Arab states have been at odds over the time and place to hold an emergency summit on Gaza which has been under intensive Israeli onslaught for the past 20 days.

Qatar has spearheaded in calling on the 22-member AL based in Cairo to convene an emergency Arab summit on Gaza in its capital Doha, but the proposal of the tiny Gulf Arab state met strong resistance from regional heavyweights Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

The two countries, close allies in the region with the United States, have declared their preference to discuss the Gaza situation when they meet for the long-planned Arab economic summit scheduled for Jan. 19-20 in Kuwait.

Saudi king invited leaders of six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to attend an emergency summit in Riyadh on Thursday in a bid to adopt a unified stance on rendering support to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The AL said Doha has failed to secure the quorum of 15 required for a formal Arab summit, but oil-rich Qatar insisted on going ahead with its initiative.

Some leaders of the Arab countries, such as Lebanon, Syria, Libya, and Sudan, have arrived on Thursday in Doha to attend the meeting scheduled on Friday, though Egypt and Saudi Arabia refused to attend.

The closed-door emergency meeting in Kuwait, the second one in half a month, addresses the Gaza offensive which Israel said was aimed at retaliating rocket attacks by the Islamist militant group Hamas which has been ruling the impoverished coastal enclave since June 2007.

On Monday, Moussa said the Kuwait meeting will examine the developments related to Israel's refusal to abide by UN Security Council Resolution 1860 calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

The first emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers on Gaza was held in Cairo on December 31, four days after Israel launched the military operation, which has so far killed over 1,133 Palestinians and wounded 5,000 others.

(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2009)