1.   And it also managed to persuade Yemen and Eritrea to take a dispute over a strategic Red Sea archipelago to arbitration.

2.   Eritrea is holding out on agreeing to international arbitration in its dispute with Yemen over a strategic Red Sea archipelago, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Sunday.

3.   Yemen and Eritrea agreed to put their dispute before international arbitration after Eritrean troops occupied Hanish al-Kabir island in the strategic archipelago claimed by both countries.

4.   The dispute is over which country has sovereignty over the strategic Hanish archipelago, which commands access to the Bab al-Mandab straits.

5.   The Indonesian navy also has to police the strategic Natuna archipelago in the South China Sea between Borneo and Malaysia.

6.   The island is part of a strategic archipelago controlling access to the Bab al-Mandab straits between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.