The Arab League will consider setting up a defence unit to battle the spread of the Islamic State group at its annual summit later this month.
Deputy chief Ahmed Ben Helli told reporters that the March 28-29 meeting in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh will discuss an Egyptian initiative to create a "unified Arab force".
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has called for such a unit to confront security threats in the region, where IS holds swathes of Syria and Iraq and has gained a foothold in Egypt's neighbour Libya.
Last month, Sisi ordered air strikes in Libya after IS jihadists there beheaded 21 mostly Egyptian Christians.
Ben Helli says a united Arab force is needed, even as a "symbolic" show of deterrence at times of "conflict or disasters".
