CAIRO - A summit of Arab leaders has been postponed by a year to March 2012 because of turmoil in the region, but will still be held in Iraq as originally planned, the Arab League said on Thursday. A League official also said foreign ministers would meet on May 15 to discuss who would lead the League after Amr Moussa, the secretary-general who is due to step down this month. Mass demonstrations demanding political reforms have toppled the long-time leaders of Tunisia and Egypt and are challenging rulers elsewhere in the region, changing the political map of the Middle East. The region's heads of state were supposed to meet in the Iraqi capital Baghdad in March to discuss the popular unrest. Gulf Arab states asked the League to cancel this year's summit after Iraq criticised Bahrain's crackdown on Shi'ite protesters, Bahrain's foreign minister has said. Moussa told Reuters the new date was communicated to all League members and there was agreement among them. Asked about the reason for the delay, Moussa said: "That is upon the formal request of the government of Iraq". In a statement, the League said that postponing the meeting until next March will "ensure the summit would offer results sufficient for the ambitions of the Arab people for reform". Moussa's deputy Ahmed bin Heli said Arab foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting on May 15 in Oman to discuss who should replace Moussa as secretary-general when his term ends later this month. Two candidates -- Egyptian Mostafa el-Fekki and Qatar's Abdel Rahman al-Atiyah -- are in the running for the position. The Iraqi Foreign Minister said Iraq will not field a candidate. Moussa, a former Egyptian foreign minister who has held the League post for 10 years, is running for president of Egypt after Mubarak, his old boss, was ousted on Feb. 11.
