ARAB WORLD Powell, Mubarak urge Palestinian teamwork

Egypt opposes U.N. action on what the U.S. calls a campaign of genocide in Sudan.
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Egypt and the United States want Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to get down to work with the prime minister he appointed after the two reached an agreement aimed at resolving a leadership crisis, an Egyptian official said today after a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Powell was in Egypt on a Mideast tour aimed at trying to revive the Palestinian-Israeli peace process and talking with some of America's closest Arab allies about Iraq's future, the war on terror, violence in Sudan and the U.S. initiative to encourage greater democracy in this troubled region.
Powell headed to Saudi Arabia after his round of meetings with Egyptian officials and is to meet there Thursday with Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. It will be their first meeting since the United States handed over sovereignty to Iraq a month ago.
Egyptian presidential spokesman Maged Abdel Fattah issued a statement to reporters after Powell and Mubarak met this morning saying the two had agreed Arafat and Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia should work together.
Urging from Mubarak
Abdel Fattah added that Mubarak had telephoned Arafat on Tuesday to urge him to implement his agreement with Qureia "with all seriousness and to continue contacts with the leaders of the Palestinian factions to contain this crisis and start empowering the prime minister and enable him to exercise his power according to the agreement."
On Tuesday, Qureia withdrew a resignation he had offered 10 days ago in frustration at Arafat's refusal to let him restructure the security forces and deal with growing unrest in the Palestinian areas.
On Sudan, Powell is pushing for U.N. Security Council sanctions against Sudan but Egypt believes that any such action would only complicate an already difficult situation.
Egypt's stance
In his statement today, the Egyptian presidential spokesman reiterated that Egypt thinks Sudan should be allowed to resolve the situation without outside interference and said his government would push Sudan to act "in order to prevent the adoption of this [Security Council] resolution."
The Bush administration holds the Sudanese government principally responsible for a situation the U.S. Congress has described as a campaign of genocide against Sudanese of African descent by Arab Sudanese backed by the Sudanese government.
On Iraq, the Egyptians told Powell they did not want to send in Egyptian troops. Most Arab governments have rebuffed requests from Iraq for peacekeepers. Many Arab citizens see the insurgents who oppose the interim Iraqi government and U.S.-led forces in Iraq as freedom fighters standing up to the United States.