CAIRO, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- A four-way summit grouping leaders of Egypt, Sudan, Iraq and Yemen was held here on Sunday on the latest developments of the Mideast region.

    The meeting among Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was held at the presidential palace in Cairo.

L-R: Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and his counterparts Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Omar al-Beshir of Sudan share a laugh during a meeting in Cairo. Mubarak hosted a summit with his counterparts from Iraq, Sudan and Yemen on Sunday to discuss Middle East developments and the upcoming US-sponsored peace meeting.(Xinhua Photo)

    The Mideast situation, particularly the preparations of a U.S.-initiated international conference on Mideast peace, were high on the agenda of the four leaders' meeting.

    Egypt is seeking to unify Arab ranks ahead of the U.S.-proposed Mideast peace conference, which was scheduled to be held later this year in the United States.

    Earlier on Sunday, Mubarak held a tete-a-tete meeting with al-Bashir, who arrived here earlier in the day.

    The talks between Mubarak and the Sudanese president mainly focused on the situation in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, bilateral relations and other issues of mutual interest.

    In addition, Mubarak met twice with visiting King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Saturday and Sunday respectively, coordinating stances on Mideast issues including the upcoming U.S.-brokered Mideast conference.

    Talabani and Saleh, who are expected to join al-Bashir and some other Arab leaders to attend the opening ceremony of the 11th Pan-Arab Games slated for Sunday evening, arrived here on Saturday.

    In July, U.S. President George W. Bush proposed to hold an international conference this fall to include Israel, the Palestinian National Authority and some of their Arab neighbors to help restart the stalled Mideast peace talks.