Manama: The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are expected to adopt tomorrow a proposal to establish a high commission to coordinate the decisions by the six member states, a Saudi daily reported.

Citing "well-informed" sources, Al Sharq said that the commission would oversee the implementation of the GCC decisions or proposals and would follow up their implementation as well as unifying views.

The GCC, established in 1981 in Abu Dhabi, is made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The GCC leaders, at their annual advisory summit in Riyadh tomorrow, are also likely to consider a suggestion to transform the GCC general secretariat into a commission that coordinates GCC positions and assumes, in a greater manner, the responsibilities of the secretariat.

However, transforming the secretariat into a commission will require the establishment of five bodies for political, economic, defence, security and legal affairs.

Technical work

The five bodies within the commission will take over where the secretariat reached in its technical work for the anticipated Gulf integration, the sources, that the paper did not identify, said.

The new commission plan had been presented by a Gulf figure to the GCC secretariat general and was studied alongside other proposals submitted by GCC personalities following the call by King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saudi in December to the GCC countries to move from the state of cooperation to the state of unity within a single entity.

According to the sources, the transformation will guarantee practical implementation steps that will give the GCC, as a unified entity, a greater weight in addressing Arab and Middle East issues.

The existence of a commission will also empower the GCC states to adopt positions that will boost the protection of its political, security, economic and social interests.

All member states should appreciate the demands of the current challenges for a robust GCC that will have greater impact in the region and in the face of disturbances, the sources said.

In Manama, Samira Rajab, the state minister for information affairs, said that a GCC committee, made up of 18 members, three from each state, had completed its report on unity and that the GCC leaders would look into it at their advisory summit.

Bahrain and Saudi Arabia could make the first move towards unity and that it would be similar to the European Union, but would not an imitation.