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The recently heightened rhetoric of a possible strike against Iraq started a heated debate on its consequences in the Arab world. For his part, Amr Moussa, the Arab League chief, has expressed his concern over such an attack, saying that it will threaten the stability of the whole region.

The Palestinian cabinet endorsed last Wednesday the proposal presented earlier last week by Israeli defence minister, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, stipulating the withdrawal of Israel from Gaza as a primary step if the Palestinian Authority undertakes to curb the bomb attacks.

Marwan Barghouti, the leader of the Fatah movement in the West Bank, was recently brought to trial.

The Middle East, particularly the Gulf, has long been a region characterised by high rates of population growth compared with any other region, even surpassing Sub-Saharan Africa.

Many Arab cities have seen angry demonstrations in protest against Israel's military offensive in the Palestinian territories. Some of these demonstrations turned into a confrontation between police and the demonstrators in Jordan, Egypt and Bahrain.

The Palestinians and Israelis agreed to end the 38-day siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, complying with Sharon's conditions.

In response to the recent attack on the Indian army camp in Jammu in which 31 people died, India has asked Pakistan to recall its High Commissioner Ashraf Jehangir Qazi from New Delhi.

Last week, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) gave birth to the African Union (AU), with the inaugural meeting of the AU leaders held in King's Park, Durban, South Africa.

The Machakos Protocol signed in Nairobi last week between the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), established a framework to end the country's 19-year-old civil war which has torn apart northern and southern Sudan.