Security, economy on agenda of December 3-4 Gulf summit

Leaders of the pro-Western Gulf monarchies are to hold their annual summit in Qatar on December 3-4, amid the violence in Iraq and escalation of the Iran nuclear crisis, the bloc's chief said on Saturday. Heads of state of the six oil-rich Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) member states will focus on "Gulf security" at their meeting in Doha, Abdulrahman al-Attiyah told AFP.
This year's summit "is important given the regional situation, chiefly the continuing deterioration of the situation in Iraq and the escalation between Iran and the West over its nuclear programme," the secretary general said. He said foreign ministers from GCC member states Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates would hold a preparatory meeting for the summit in Doha on Monday.
Apart from Iraq, Iran and other regional issues, the ministers will prepare files on economic co-operation, chiefly the planned launch of a GCC common market in early 2008, Attiyah said. They will also examine obstacles hampering implementation of the customs union launched in January 2003 and examine recommendations of finance and economy ministers on a timetable for a planned monetary union, he said.
He did not elaborate, but Saudi Arabia's chief banker, Hamad al-Sayari, said last month that GCC states would reassess the economic situation to set a new deadline for the bloc's monetary union which was planned for 2010.
Gulf leaders are widely expected to reach a final decision in Qatar. The single currency plan has hit technical, legislative and fiscal hurdles, and Oman's central bank governor Homud al-Zidjali announced in May that the sultanate would not join the scheme.
Also in May, Kuwait pegged its dinar to a basket of international currencies in a bid to cut inflation after more than four years of being linked to the dollar like other GCC states. Economists said Kuwait's move made it highly unlikely the GCC would meet the 2010 single currency target.
Proposals include postponing the deadline or forming a two-speed union, under which those states that are ready would launch in 2010, allowing other countries to join later.