Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir, defying an international arrest warrant over Darfur, lashed out at the UN Security Council on Monday and urged fellow Arab leaders to reject his indictment.
But a tirade by Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi against Saudi King Abdullah overshadowed the start of the two-day Arab summit in Doha, evoking a fiery exchange between the leaders of the two oil-producing states at a 2003 summit.
Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani later managed to bring Kadhafi and King Abdullah together for a meeting which cleared the air, according to senior Libyan official Ahmad Kadaf al-Dam.
Beshir called on the Arab League leaders to issue "strong and clear decisions rejecting this (arrest) decision, and demanding those who fabricated it to annul it."
He already has the solidarity of Arab countries which have repeatedly denounced the arrest warrant issued on March 4 by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged war crimes in Darfur.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose country on Monday handed over the presidency of the annual Arab League summit to Qatar, echoed calls to support Beshir against the ICC.
"We are called upon today, not (just) to criticise the warrant (which) ... we are all agreed is politicised, but to reject it categorically," Assad said.
The Arab summit should "express absolute support for Sudan at this stage of the confrontation in order to save it," the Syrian leader said in his address to the heads of states.
Beshir is on his fourth trip abroad since the ICC issued its indictment.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who attended the summit opening despite the presence of Beshir, called on Khartoum to reverse its decision to expel 13 aid groups from war-battered Darfur, a measure taken in response to the ICC warrant.
"I urge the Sudanese authorities once again to reverse this decision," Ban told the meeting.
But Beshir instead accused the UN Security Council of being "undemocratic" and of adopting "double standards," calling for the 15-member body to be reformed.
"Reforming the Security Council (would be) a way to make the world more peaceful and secure, because in its current state, with members violating the UN charter ..., international peace and security are in danger," he said.
"How could the Security Council referral of the Darfur issue to the so-called ICC be justified while ... America exempts its civilians and military personnel worldwide from the jurisdiction of this court?" he asked.
Assad, meanwhile, said Arab countries do not have a partner in efforts to achieve peace with the Jewish state and that the incoming right-wing government in Israel represents a society which does not want peace.
"We Arabs, since we offered the Arab initiative, do not have a real partner in the peace process," he said. "This (incoming) government ... shows that this (Israeli) society is not ready for peace."
In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu finalised his right-wing government on Monday, a day before presenting it to parliament.
The Saudi-inspired Arab peace initiative, on the table since 2002, offers the Jewish state full normalisation of ties in return for its withdrawal from occupied Arab lands.
Assad reiterated calls to "suspend" the Arab peace offer.
Arab states are aiming at the summit to close ranks, split largely over how to respond to Israel's 22-day military onslaught against the Gaza Strip and amid the growing regional influence of Shiite Iran.
But Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, whose country is the largest Arab nation in terms of population and is a major regional powerhouse, has decided to shun the summit amid strained ties with its Qatari hosts.
Cairo and Riyadh are staunch supporters of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, while Damascus and Doha back the Islamist movement Hamas which routed Abbas's Fatah loyalists from Gaza in deadly factional fighting in June 2007.
