Gulf Arab states look to harvest food from foreign investment to meet growing demand. DUBAI - Faced with a scarcity of fertile land, water shortages and surging world food prices, wealthy Arab states in the Gulf are seeking to secure their food supplies by investing in agriculture abroad. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the top food importers among Arab countries in the Gulf, are now looking to Asia and Africa as opportunities for agricultural investments. UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan said in Kazakhstan on Monday that his country, which imports around 85 percent of its food, is interested in the central Asian nation "to diversify its sources of food supplies."

Investing in agriculture abroad "is part of our strategic investment in general," UAE Economy Minister Sultan bin Said al-Mansuri said earlier this month.

Rapid growth fuelled by record oil revenues has triggered a huge influx of expatriates in the Gulf, steadily boosting populations and stretching the ability to meet demand for mostly imported foodstuffs.

The total population of the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE - rose from around 30 million in 2000 to more than 35 million in 2006, according to GCC statistics.

This figure is expected to reach nearly 39 million by 2010 and 58 million by 2030, according to a Dubai-based Gulf Reseach Centre (GRC) report.

Although these nations have huge oil reserves they are among the world's poorest in natural water resources and arable land - just two percent of the vast Saudi desert kingdom and one percent of the UAE.

GCC food imports cost 10 billion dollars in 2007, said the GRC study, although some press reports put the figure much higher. Saudi Arabia, with a population of about 24 million, remains the largest food importer.

Amid surging food prices and a fear of shortages caused by export bans from major crop-producing countries, GCC states now want food lifelines.

For Saudi Arabia investing in agriculture abroad marks a shift from its own costly crop self-sufficiency scheme.

"In the 1970s and 1980s Saudi Arabia developed its own agricultural sector for food security," said Monica Malik, economist at the Dubai-based EFG-Hermes investment bank.

"However the sector had to be highly subsidised by the government for it to be economically viable given the climatic conditions," she said.

In a kingdom with scarce water reserves a tonne of barley requires roughly 1,212 cubic metres (42,801 cubic feet) of practically exhausted ground-water reserves, the GRC said.

Malik said the issue of food security has worsened globally given the sharp rise in food prices and demand.

"A number of GCC countries are looking at establishing agricultural ventures in nearby countries such as Sudan for this food security and as a cheaper alternative to domestic production," she said.

"Proximity is important, as is a good relationship with the other country to secure food supplies," Malik added. Close ties with partner countries could protect the GCC against export bans in times of crop shortages in exporting countries, she said.

One reported UAE project to develop more than 70,000 acres (28,328 hectares) of arable land in Sudan is in line with this strategy. Riyadh has also held talks with Khartoum on agricultural projects, the Financial Times reported last month.

Africa's largest country has abundant water resources including the Nile River, the world's longest.

But Sudanese agriculture remains massively underdeveloped, although it employs 80 percent of the workforce, with much of the population reliant on subsistence agriculture.

Egypt and Pakistan have also been targeted by Saudi Arabia and the UAE for food projects. Both Muslim countries have large expatriate communities in the Gulf that send home huge amounts of money annually.

"There are some projects we are negotiating with the UAE related to food security for the UAE," Egypt's foreign trade and industry minister, Rashid Mohammed Rashid, was quoted by the Emirati daily The National as saying this month.

In Pakistan, the UAE is considering buying more than 100,000 acres (40,470 hectares) of farmland worth 500 million dollars, press reports said. Private UAE firms such as the Dubai-based Abraaj Capital have also reportedly been buying agricultural land in Pakistan.

According to the reports, when Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani visited Saudi Arabia in June he offered hundreds of thousands of acres of agricultural land to the Saudis in return for oil.

But agricultural exporters including Egypt and Pakistan recently imposed export bans on certain crops after riots triggered by food shortages at home.

Host countries for agricultural investment may therefore be unable to allow exports because they have to feed their own people.

Arab ministers discuss ways of dealing with ICC prosecutor's bid to arrest Sudan President.CAIRO - Arab foreign ministers were on Saturday to hold crisis talks on how to deal with the International Criminal Court prosecutor's bid to arrest Sudan President Omar al-Beshir for alleged genocide in Darfur. ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Monday asked ICC judges to issue a warrant for Beshir's arrest on genocide charges, which, if granted, would be the first ever issued by The Hague-based court against a sitting head of state. ome of the Arab League's 22-members have criticised the move, saying it threatens peace prospects in Darfur. "The ministers will discuss the possibility of asking the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution asking for the ICC to suspend its procedures for 12 months," one Arab diplomat said.

Such a suspension, which is indefinitely renewable, is necessary because the penal process against Beshir "reduces the chances of peace in Darfur," the diplomat said.

The request would be in tandem with African efforts, after Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade on Thursday asked the ICC to freeze its prosecution for a year, citing Article 16 of the Rome Statute which created the court.

"If the prosecution of al-Beshir continues, the situation in Darfur could worsen and plunge into indescribable chaos," Wade warned.

Fouad Riad, who was a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, said that the Arab League was already studying judicial and political ways to resolve the crisis.

Following a judicial committee's meeting on Wednesday with League Secretary General Amr Moussa, Riad said there were two other options on the table besides asking for a suspension.

The UN Security Council could be asked to rescind its 2005 decision to refer the case of alleged war crimes in Darfur to the ICC, or Sudan could immediately start a serious process to judge those accused of crimes in Darfur, he said.

Khartoum has consistently rejected the ICC's jurisdiction, saying it would try alleged war criminals in its own courts.

Sudan has refused to surrender two suspects named last year in connection with war crimes in Darfur and hopes to persuade veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council to defer any ICC prosecution of Beshir.

Arab states cannot simply reject the ICC's jurisdiction, despite the fact that only three League members signed up to it -- Jordan, Djibouti and the Comoros -- as they do not wish to a confrontation "with the entire international (legal) system," Riad said.

League chief Mussa and other Arab leaders have suggested that the ICC could not prosecute Beshir because he has immunity as a head of state, but Article 27 of the Rome Treaty specifically excludes that possibility.

The ICC "shall apply equally to all persons without any distinction based on official capacity. In particular, official capacity as a head of state... shall in no case exempt a person from criminal responsibility," it says.

The Darfur conflict broke out in 2003 when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the regime in Khartoum.

The United Nations has said 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million have been displaced. Khartoum puts the number of dead at 10,000.

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Interfaith conference said to have come at time when Islam is being lied about, distorted for political purposes. MADRID - Saudi Arabia won praise Friday for taking a leading role in an interfaith conference, with participants saying it was another sign the conservative kingdom is opening up. Rabbi David Rosen, the only Israeli who attended the three-day meeting led by Saudi King Abdullah, said he believes the oil-rich Persian Gulf kingdom also wants to reaffirm leadership in the Muslim world for fear of greater instability."The Saudis are definitely opening up," said Rosen, who heads inter-religious relations for the American Jewish Committee and is a former chief rabbi of Ireland. "I have heard from the Saudis that this is a culmination of a process that began the moment Abdullah ascended to the throne and that he actually wants to open up Saudi society."

The Saudi monarch unexpectedly called the conference about a month ago. It brought together Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus and Buddhists among other religions and was hosted by Spain. The meeting ended on Friday.

Abdullah has made reaching out to other faiths a hallmark of his rule since taking over the country in 2005. He met with Pope Benedict XVI late last year, the first meeting ever between a pope and a reigning Saudi king.

And in June, Abdullah held a religious conference at home in Mecca, Islam's holiest city. At that meeting, participants pledged improved relations between Islam's two main branches, Sunni and Shiite, and Abdullah also rejected extremism, saying Muslims must present Islam's true and "good message" to the world.

"It's also believed that he is very concerned about instability in the region … and that there is a need to reaffirm what he sees as Saudi Arabia's leadership in the region," said Rosen, who holds dual Israeli-American citizenship.

William Baker, president of the US group Christians and Muslims for Peace, said the real significance of the meeting was that "it originated in the heart of Islam."

"This could not come at a better time for the whole world and peace and it could not have come from a better place as Islam is being propagandized against, lied about and distorted in the West for political purposes," said Baker.

Saudi Arabia presented the conference as a strictly religious initiative. The World Muslim League, which organized it for the king, was adamant there would be no discussions of political issues such as the war in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the Iranian nuclear programme.

At the conference, delegates dwelt instead on issues such as dialogue within the Islamic world and with other denominations. Other topics debated were the need to protect the family, the role of women in religion and ways to protect the environment. They agreed to try to organize more conferences and involve the United Nations.

For Rosen, the fact that the conference took place at all was the most significant thing.