Global markets were stunned by the debt crisis of Dubai, a fishing town turned financial hub, however, some Arab economists said that it is in the interest of all players to help Dubai to overcome the crisis, suggesting a set of procedures and measures that would help Dubai to ride out the hard times.

Dubai World, one of Dubai's largest and Emirate's leading state-owned company, asked last week for a delay in repaying nearly US$60 billion it owes to creditors as a first step to restructuring the company, causing panic and concerns across global financial markets.

Performance of stock markets in the United Arab Emirates declined during the first day of trading after the Eid al-Adha holiday ended on Monday.

The response to the crisis is primarily through expenditure rationalization in Dubai, especially in the new projects, said Dr. Ahmed Gowaili, Secretary-General of the Council of Arab Economic Unity.

Gulf countries, affected by this crisis, should help Dubai by meeting their obligations and paying their debts to alleviate the negative impacts of the crisis, Gowaili told Xinhua.

The senior economist attributed the crisis of Dubai's debt mainly to what he considered "uncalculated expansions" in investments, especially in the field of real estate, adding that the inability of Dubai institutions to meet their debts due to the significant expansion in these investments created a state of anxiety and fear in global markets either directly or indirectly.

Gowaili pointed out that Dubai crisis had a negative impact on the stock exchanges and the Gulf markets, and is expected to dent the UAE investments abroad, especially the ports and real estate.

Concerns about Dubai's debt problems continued to ease on Tuesday. Dubai World said it is in talks to restructure US$26 billion of debt, which helped to play down the worries that it might go into default and wipe out the investment of its creditors.