After reportedly threatening to boycott the March summit, Arab diplomats said, Saudi Arabia transferred its ambassador in Damascus, Ahmad Ali Qahtani, to Doha to lower the kingdom's representation in Syria while simultaneously upgrading its presence in Qatar.

Saudi Arabia has not had an ambassador in Qatar since Riyadh withdrew him in 2002 after the Qatar-based al-Jazeera news channel aired a debate in which a guest sharply criticized the Saudi royal family. The two wealthy Gulf Arab countries have been lashing out at each other through their media for the past two years.

By moving the envoy from Damascus to Doha the Saudis seek to repair one relationship at the expense of another, one Arab diplomat told the Middle East Times, suggesting that the influential monarchy will flex its full political and economic muscle against Syria to "facilitate presidential elections" in Lebanon.

Other Arab diplomats said this week that Saudi King Abdullah will boycott the March 29-30 summit while Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will only attend if Syria exerts enough pressure on its Lebanese allies in the opposition to abandon their demands to free the way for the election of a president.

Saudi Arabia's U.S.-backed Arab allies have indicated that they, too, will boycott the summit, or dispatch low-level delegations if Lebanon doesn't have a president by then.

Saudi-owned newspapers have also reported on discussions earlier this week between Arab heavyweight leaders Mubarak and the Saudi monarch, over the possibility of seeking to move the summit from Damascus to Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh. Some commentators urged them to call off the meeting altogether.

"Darkness shrouds the Arab summit," Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said, in remarks to the Saudi-financed al-Hayat daily on Thursday. "And for that reason, I insist on salvaging the Lebanon crisis."

Lebanon has been without a president since pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud's term expired in November as the country's political rivals bicker over electing army chief General Michel Suleiman as head of state.

Syria is backing the Lebanese Hezbollah-led opposition in its demands to obtain enough portfolios in the new government to enjoy veto power in major decisions before electing Suleiman. The pro-Western anti-Syrian ruling majority, backed by Saudi Arabia, rejects these demands outright.

So far Damascus has resisted the pressure, brushing aside talk of moving the summit's venue or attempts to foil it through boycotts, saying the meeting will be held on time in the Syrian capital.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told al-Jazeera on Thursday it didn't matter if some of the heads of state did not show up, because most of the Arab summits in the past 20 years were usually only attended by 12 to 14 of the 22 Arab League leaders.

"The summit is being convened on the basis of a decision taken at the 2007 summit in Riyadh," Muallem said. "I believe it is the duty of all the Arab leaders and officials to respect their own decisions."

The Syrian foreign minister was speaking from Doha, where he handed a summit invitation from President Bashar Assad to Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, after having delivered invitations to the majority of the Arab leaders and the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council members – except Saudi Arabia, which holds the current rotating presidency of the Arab summit.

Arab diplomats told the Middle East Times that Muallem had intended to deliver an invitation to Saudi King Abdullah, but that Riyadh was making it clear he was not welcome to personally hand it over.

Analysts say the Saudis have created a catch-22 situation by placing the Syrian minister in the awkward position of having to find a way to deliver the invitation according to proper protocol, while at the same time providing the Saudis with a justification, if feeble, to complain that they haven't received an invite.

Nonetheless, the Syrians don't intend to bow to Saudi pressure over Lebanon. As Muallem stressed to al-Jazeera, the growing pressure against his country clearly was "incitement" led by the United States as part of its policy in the region.

"We don't submit to pressures," Muallem said. "What's really happening is that Arabs are exercising external incitement against Syria … which is just an implementation of the American agenda through Arab hands, unfortunately."

The minister insisted that his country didn't have the key to a solution in Lebanon, but that the Lebanese must solve their problem domestically, and he urged the Arabs who back the pro-Western Lebanese camp to work with Damascus to find a solution.

"We have friendly influence with the [Lebanese] opposition and others have friendly influence with the ruling side. So we extend our hand to cooperate with our Arab brothers to encourage the Lebanese to find a solution in Lebanon," Muallem said.

Yet, many Lebanese do not see their crisis ending until Damascus and Riyadh reconcile their deep differences, which are rooted in Syria's strategic alliance with non-Arab Shiite Iran, which backs Hezbollah, and Saudi Arabia's promotion of U.S. policies in the region.