Dubai: As Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited India signifying the growing bilateral ties, the Arab world on September 10 hoped that India would remain sincere in its relations with them and continue its traditional support to the Palestinian cause.

"We hope that India will remain sincere to its relations with Arabs" and would not back the Jewish state in a way that "helps Israel escalate its killings and destruction to the Palestinian territories", Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa said in Cairo after a meeting of Arab Foreign Ministers.

"Of course we cannot tie any country's hand from receiving a certain official or not...(but we are expecting that India will not give support to an aggressive country, an occupier who rejected peace)."

Media in the Arab world gave extensive coverage to Sharon's visit and his talks with Indian leadership, while a Dubai-based leading daily expressed fear that it might result in the emergence of an Israel-US- India axis.

'Gulf News' in an editorial page article said that the Indo-Israeli Summit "is believed to be nothing but a formal declaration of an alliance that brings together three right-winged administrations that have much in common".

This, it said, "will certainly result in a major shift in the balance of power not only in the Indian sub- continent but in the Middle East and the rest of Asia."

PTI