Arab foreign ministers agreed Friday to participate in next week's Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faysal said.

"The Arab unanimous approval was what made us decide to go," al- Faysal said in a press conference following the Arab foreign ministers' meeting at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said the aim behind the Arab participation was not just to confer on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but to realize a "comprehensive settlement" about other Arab causes.

The Arab foreign ministers had met on a consultative level Thursday and convened officially Friday to decide on a unified stance about the conference.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had earlier expressed hopes that all countries which attended the Arab peace initiative meeting would join forces in the conference.

"I told the Arab foreign ministers they had a historical opportunity that we need to seize to voice our (cause) before the international community," Mahmoud Abbas told reporters in Cairo Friday.

Abbas said he had met Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert eight times and exchanged views with him over all issues to be discussed in Annapolis on November 27.

The negotiations in Annapolis, Abbas noted, would be based on the "road map" peace plan, the 2002 Arab peace initiative and previous agreements and international accords.

Mussa said Thursday the Arab participation in the Annapolis conference will not mean a "free normalization with Israel," which is already a part of the Arab peace initiative.

The Arab foreign ministers will meet in Washington one day before the Annapolis conference to agree a final stance, according to Mussa.

The US has invited over 50 countries and organizations to attend the meeting, which will be the most important Middle East peace conference since former US president Bill Clinton brokered the Camp David talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in 2000.

Although Syria has been invited to the Annapolis conference it has said it will not attend unless the Golan Heights, seized from it by Israel in 1967, is on the agenda. Intense lobbying is going on behind the scenes to coax Syria into attending.

The Arab peace initiative was adopted at a summit in Beirut in March 2002. It offers Israel security and normal relations with the Arabs in return for withdrawal from occupied Arab territories, the creation of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and the return of refugees.