CAIRO, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Senior officials from the Cairo-based Arab League (AL) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) discussed on Thursday a UAE-led initiative to enhance Arab space cooperation.

AL Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit and UAE Space Agency Director General Mohammed Nasser Al Ahbabi discussed the space initiative launched by the UAE earlier this year to boost Arab cooperation in this domain, the official Egyptian news agency MENA reported.

The UAE initiative, which established the Arab Space Cooperation Group in March, is joined by 11 Arab states with the purpose of integrating the space capabilities in the Arab world, said Ahbabi.

The 11 members include the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan and Lebanon.

Ahbabi said that the group seeks to build a satellite dubbed "813" as a platform for Arab space cooperation.

The UAE official said the Arab world is "in dire need of capitalizing on space services and activities to combat desertification and relevant environmental phenomena and catch up with the latest developments in this field."

The UAE said the satellite 813 will be the group's first project to monitor the earth, environment and climate. Enditem

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