31.   Zimbabwe, whose President Robert Mugabe boycotted the summit, sent troops to assist Kabila last week.

32.   He declined to say if Beirut would boycott the summit if Israel was a participant.

33.   However Syria and Lebanon are boycotting the summit because their peace talks with Israel have yet to make progress.

34.   However, the summit was boycotted by Syria and Lebanon on the grounds that it would serve only Israeli interests.

35.   In Geneva, US State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns confirmed that Russia was not boycotting the summit and had sent a political officer to act as an observer.

36.   In his own words, Mubarak said he was boycotting the summit in solidarity with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who was barred by the Israelis from attending.

37.   In Lagos, presidential sources on Monday confirmed Abacha planned to boycott the summit, despite his earlier promises to attend.

38.   Bahrain is boycotting the summit over a border dispute with the host country.

39.   Bahrain boycotted the summit after the failure of a last-ditch Saudi mediation effort.

40.   Bahrain has vowed to boycott the summit hosted by Qatar amid competing claims from the two countries to the Hawar Islands in the Gulf.