"The Arab foreign ministers have accepted an Iraqi proposal for the summit to be held in Baghdad on May 11 next," Qais al-Azzawi told reporters, adding that it would be preceded by a foreign ministers' meeting the day before.

Azzawi said the issue was raised on Saturday during an extraordinary Arab League meeting on Libya, and a senior official confirmed that the ministers had agreed on the May 11 date.

The original March 29 date was postponed because of the wave of popular unrest sweeping across the region.

On February 18 Libya, serving chairman of the Arab League, said the summit had been put off, but Iraq denied this, saying that postponement was not "an individual decision."

Tripoli's statement came three days after the eruption of the revolt against Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's regime following the ouster in Tunisia and Egypt of veteran strongmen Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Moubarak.