President Anwar Sadat of Egypt met in closed session yesterday with the presidents of Libya, Sudan and Syria. One of the subjects reportedly discussed was a new Arab summit meeting to try to create a united Arab front against Israel and to end the bloody fighting in Jordan between King Hussein’s forces and the Palestinian guerrillas. President Muammar el-Qaddafi, of Libya, favored a summit meeting on condition that it give priority to involving the entire Arab world in the struggle with Israel. President Sadat however is reportedly anxious to derive maximum benefit from his current diplomatic offensive to get Israel to withdraw from Sinai. Despite his partners’ hard line toward Israel, they are not expected to “rock the boat,” one informed source said. The others attending the meeting were President Gaafar al-Nimeiry, of Sudan and President Hafez al-As-sad, of Syria. Arab ambassadors and other representatives continued to meet in Cairo on the latest flare-up of fighting in Jordan. While Israel is the major pre-occupation of the Arabs, King Hussein’s efforts to subdue the guerrilias in his kingdom were the target of criticism. Bahi Ladgham, the former Tunisian Premier, accused the Hussein regime of flouting the terms of an accord reached after last September’s civil war in Jordan. Ladgham was named at the time to head an all-Arab committee to supervise the accord. He accused the Jordanian government of having obstructed his mission.
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