RIYADH, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Egypt and Saudi Arabia called on Wednesday for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and said they would attend an Arab summit in Kuwait next week to discuss the crisis, Saudi state media said.

"The Egyptian and Saudi sides agreed that there must be immediate ceasefire and immediate and complete implementation of the initiative President Hosni Mubarak launched," a statement on the state news agency SPA said after Mubarak and Saudi King Abdullah held talks in Riyadh.

Qatar, which owns Al Jazeera, has asked the 22-member Arab League in Cairo to hold an emergency Arab summit on Friday.

Arab countries closely allied to the United States are under popular pressure over the Israeli offensive, which began on Dec. 27 and has killed 952 Palestinians.

Popular Arab satellite channels have carried harrowing images of the conflict and many capitals have seen daily anti-Israeli protests.

Egypt last week announced a proposal for an immediate ceasefire. Kuwait has said it will host an Arab leaders' summit next week but Qatar, home to leading Arab TV broadcaster Al Jazeera, has called for a summit sooner, on Friday.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia, key Arab allies of Washington, have been cool to the idea of a summit because it could produce little in the way of results and thus make Arab leaders appear ineffective, diplomats say.

Kuwait's proposal would merge a summit on Gaza with a planned "Arab economic summit" that Arab leaders have been invited to anyway. Egypt earlier on Tuesday rebuffed the Qatari plan, saying it preferred "consultations" in Kuwait.

"Saudi Arabia and Egypt will take part in the Arab summit in Kuwait to realise Arab interests and (to deal with) the Palestinian issue in a way that ends the aggression and realises peace for the Palestinian people," the SPA statement said.

Egypt has blamed Hamas for the assault on Gaza.

The Saudi government, which sees itself as the leader of mainstream Sunni Islam, has refrained from explicitly blaming Hamas for the offensive, but writers close to the government have blamed Hamas for aligning itself with Shi'ite power Iran.

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