CAIRO, March 3 (Xinhuanet) -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met on Thursday with visiting Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in a bid to contain the Syrian-Lebanese crisis, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported.

  ; Egyptian presidential spokesman Soliman Awad was quoted as saying the meeting was aimed at finding ways to contain the crisis by easing pressure on Syria and maintaining Lebanon's unity.

   To achieve this goal, Awad added, a formula should be found to combine the Taif agreement and UN Security Council Resolution 1559.

   The Taif agreement, signed between Damascus and various Lebanese groups in 1989, outlined a more gradual pullout of Syrian forces from Lebanon.

   Damascus says the Taif accord is accepted by all the Lebanese while the UN resolution is not.

   Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is currently on a visit to Saudi Arabia to coordinate stance on the Lebanon issue.

   Meanwhile, Arab foreign ministers demanded on Thursday that the Syrian-Lebanese issue be resolved within an Arab framework.

   The top Arab diplomats reached the consensus at the 123rd meeting of the Arab foreign ministerial council.

   Upon the request of Syria, the Syrian-Lebanese issue did not enter the formal agenda of the meeting, but the Arab foreign ministers did hold informal talks on the issue at a closed-door session in view of its importance and impact on the whole region, an Arab diplomatic source told Xinhua.  Enditem