Additional reporting By Abdul Raheem Ali, IOL Cairo correspondent

CAIRO, January 15 (IslamOnline & IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Arab states and Turkey are trying to find a formula acceptable to both Washington and Baghdad to head off war in Iraq, the state news agency MENA reported Wednesday, January 15.

Meanwhile, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said that top Iraqi official has postponed a visit to Egypt to discuss the Iraqi crisis with the Egyptian president.

"Arab and non-Arab efforts are being exerted to avoid a war and reach a formula acceptable to all the parties so as to avoid resorting to the use of force," he said.

Mubarak, speaking to journalists on his return from a visit to Riyadh on Tuesday, January 14, said "several ideas and proposals were raised" during Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul's tour of Arab countries earlier this month.

"Some people are raising the possibility of sending envoys from the region to the two parties, or holding regional meetings," he said, without going into details.

"A lot of formulas are being proposed," the president said, stressing however that it was "necessary to know the Iraqi and American points of view".

Saddam envoy postpones visit to Egypt

Top Iraqi official and President Saddam Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid has postponed a visit to Egypt to discuss the Iraqi crisis, a source at the Egyptian presidency said Wednesday.

The source gave no new date for the visit of Majid, who is a member of the decision-making Revolutionary Command Council, and did not say why he has postponed his trip, planned initially for later this week.

However, an Iraqi political source in Cairo told IslamOnline that Majid’s visit was not postponed, adding that the Iraqi ambassador to Cairo, Mohsen Khalil, was summit by his government and he is now in Iraq to discuss this visit.

“There is no political obstacles that will stop this visit,” the source said.

The visit was announced two days ago by Cairo and Mubarak confirmed he would meet the envoy Saturday and receive from him a message from Saddam Hussein.

"We will then known what they have to say," Mubarak told journalists accompanying him back from Riyadh, where Iraq dominated his talks with Saudi leaders.

Majid was the general in charge of putting down a revolt in Iraqi Kurdistan, and is widely believed to have been responsible for the 1988 gassing of Kurds in the town of Halabja on the border with Iran that left thousands dead.

Mubarak's announcement of his mission prompted a call for the Egyptian authorities to arrest Majid on his arrival from a London-based international group seeking to have alleged Iraqi war criminals brought to trial.

Charles Forrest, chief executive of Indict, said in a statement sent to AFP in Dubai, "He is a sadistic killer, not a statesman, and the Egyptian authorities should not welcome him as a guest -- they should arrest him."

Forrest said Egypt was obligated to arrest Majid under the 1948 Genocide Convention which it had ratified, AFP said.

Political experts told IslamOnline that the visit is likely to be cancelled because of the U.S. threats that Majid must be arrested.

Another alternative could be to replace Majid by another envoy to avoid a political crisis, they said, adding that the U.S could be trying to abort any attempts trying to find a peaceful solution to the Iraqi crisis.

“The Iraqi envoy is probably bringing the Egyptian president an initiative to avoid war and that’s what the U.S. probably wants to stop,” they added.

Kharazi to travel to Egypt for talks on the Iraq crisis

The Tehran Times, meanwhile, said Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi was to travel early next week to Egypt for talks on the Iraq crisis with his Egyptian, Jordan, Kuwaiti, Saudi, Syrian and Turkish counterparts.

The aim will be to find a peaceful solution, the paper said, although there was no immediate confirmation of the report from the Iranian government.

Mubarak said his own visit to Saudi Arabia was part of the regional peace effort. "And there is also a dialogue between us and the Syrians, as well as other Arab brothers," he said.

"At the same time, we are in constant contact with the U.S. administration," said the Egyptian leader.

He urged Baghdad "to avoid providing any pretext that would allow the outbreak of war," prevent any incident with UN arms inspectors at work in Iraq and "fill any gaps" in its arms declaration to the United Nations.

Mubarak has said war over Iraq's alleged mass destruction arms would "pour oil on the flames" in the region, while Gul said his tour of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia focused on efforts to formulate a peace initiative.

In Riyadh, Arab diplomats said that Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey had joined forces to find a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis.