Peres breaks bread with Saudi king to kick off interfaith meet

Arab leaders, including the Saudi king, and Israel's president attended the same dinner, a rare encounter that the head of the United Nations hopes will promote understanding and talks.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hosted the dinner Tuesday night for leaders attending a two-day UN conference to promote a global dialogue about religions, cultures and common values that starts Wednesday.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia asked the General Assembly to hold the conference as a follow-up to an interfaith meeting he organized with King Juan Carlos of Spain in July in Madrid.

"It's quite unique when you expect President [Shimon] Peres of Israel ... and many kings and leaders from the Arab world ... [sitting] down together and having dinner," Ban told reporters.

The secretary-general told reporters he was not going to organize any meeting between the Saudi king and the Israeli president. Public meetings between Israeli and Saudi officials are extremely rare, and many Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, do not have diplomatic ties to Israel.

An AP photographer allowed to take pictures at the start of the dinner, for about 40 VIPs, said there was no contact between Peres and Abdullah. The Saudi king walked by Peres towards his table, where he was seated next to Ban. The Israeli president was seated at a table some distance away.

Ban refused to disclose seating arrangements for the dinner, though he said all guests would be eating the same food.

"But sitting in the same room and engaging in [the] same functions - normally in the past they have not been sitting in the same place like this. That is again very important," Ban said before the event began. "I sincerely hope that through their participation in the meetings, and through this social-diplomatic gathering, they will be able to promote further understandings."

"So far, 65 countries have asked to speak during the two-day meeting, said Enrique Yeves," a spokesman for General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann.

The kings of Saudi Arabia and Jordan, the emirs of Kuwait and Bahrain, the presidents of the United States, Israel, Finland, Pakistan and Lebanon and the prime ministers of Britain, Qatar, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Djibouti and Egypt were expected to attend.

U.S. President George W. Bush was set to speak Thursday and did not attending Tuesday night's dinner.

"The purpose of this meeting is to promote mutual understanding and address all the differences of opinions in the political or religion area," Ban said. "I hope that this will also create some atmosphere, favorable, conducive to address the differences of political issues."

The secretary-general he would do his best to keep in mind the opportunities and try to promote further understanding between the Arabs and Israelis.

Ban said he had an hour-long meeting with the Saudi king on Monday and commended his initiative and efforts to get agreement on a final statement that will be issued at the end of the conference.

He was asked why the UN was holding a conference on religious tolerance promoted by Saudi Arabia, which does not allow the public practice of any religion other than Islam and restricts those who do not follow the strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam.

Sidestepping, Ban replied: "I hope that through meetings of this kind of high-level dialogue the whole world will be able to live in a society where more tolerance and more harmonious and more peaceful atmosphere exists."

Human Rights Watch also took up Saudi intolerance, urging world leaders to press King Abdullah to end systematic religious discrimination.

"Saudi Arabia should practice at home what it preaches abroad," Sarah Leah Whitson, the organization's Middle East director, said in a statement. "The dialogue should be about where religious intolerance runs deepest, and that includes Saudi Arabia."

The secretary-general said the values the conference aims to promote are common to all the world's religions, and can help us fight extremism, prejudice and hatred.

Ban just returned from Egypt where he chaired a meeting of the international Quartet - the UN, the U.S., the European Union and Russia - seeking to achieve a Mideast peace agreement.

While the Quartet members regret that an Israeli-Palestinian agreement is unlikely to be reached this year, he said, all were impressed by the commitment of the parties to pursue negotiations and remain focused on the goal: a final peace treaty, on all core issues.