Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said yesterday a Saudi proposal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was doomed to failure because the Arab leaders behind it were "half-wits".

"Arab leaders have no credibility. These Arab leaders are poor half-wits and no one would take them seriously," he told supporters gathered at his home in the capital Tripoli.

Colonel Gaddafi said Israel would not accept the initiative, launched in 2002 and relaunched every year since, including at last month's Arab summit in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

The 2002 proposal offers Israel normal relations with all Arab states in exchange for withdrawal to the 1967 borders and an agreed settlement of the Palestinian refugee problem. Tripoli accuses Saudi Arabia of marginalising the diplomacy of Libya and other north African states as it pursues mediation to end the Arab-Israeli conflict and a standoff between Lebanon's government and Hizbollah-led opposition.

Multilateral talks including Israel and a wide range of Arab countries, including many from the Gulf and North Africa, took place in the early 1990s as part of the process launched at the Madrid peace conference in 1991.

Col Gaddafi claims a leading role for himself to help resolve turmoil in the Middle East and elsewhere because, he argues, he enjoys overwhelming support in the Arab world and beyond. "The biggest blocs in the world like China and America will come to us and listen to resolve difficult issues, not to powerless and helpless Arab rulers," he added.