Agencies - Arab leaders Thursday concluded their summit which skirted round controversial issues - but did make a firm call for Israel finally to accept the conditions for their offered recognition of the Jewish state.

The offer, first made five years ago, envisages Israel's withdrawal from the Arab regions occupied in 1967 as well as a right to return for the Palestinians evicted in 1948.

Before the conclusion of the two-day summit in Riyadh, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas demanded the creation of a committee of the Arab states headed by Saudi Arabia to have a free hand in implementing the initiative.

Like most Arab states, Saudi Arabia does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, while the Israeli government so far has shown only little interest in the proposals - and most of all has rejected concessions on the refugee issue.

Both the EU and the US, however, have described the initiative as a possible basis for negotiations.

All contentious issues were left out of the summit's vaguely formulated, brief concluding declaration, which emphasized "Arab solidarity."

One of the most difficult topics at the summit was the attempt to achieve reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq. The Shiite and Kurdish dominated Iraqi leadership declined the Arab states' demands for a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops.

Despite the daily assaults and attacks in his country, the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said: "Our people today have more freedom than ever before."

The anti-Syrian Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Seniora and his opponent, pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, however, were irreconcilable. The two ignored each other at the conference hall, which many Lebanese considered embarrassing.

Syrian President Bashar Assad, who had helped Lahoud in 2004 to another term in office, met Saudi King Abdullah and Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak several times during the summit.

Arab observers said this could be an attempt - agreed with the US - to get Syria more closely involved and to isolate Assad's ally, Iran, even further.

So the usually belligerent Syrian president in Riyadh held back on acrimonious comments. Addressing the US, he said only that those who thought they could drive a wedge between the Arabs would be proved wrong "by the solidarity demonstrated at this summit."

The next Arab League summit is scheduled to take place in Syria in 2008.