By Sue Pleming and Andrew Gray

WASHINGTON, July 27 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates travel to the Middle East next week seeking Arab support to stabilize Iraq but experts are cautious about what may be achieved.

The two U.S. cabinet officials are set to meet ministers of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council as well as Jordan and Egypt in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday, followed by meetings in Saudi Arabia.

"This is more about optics than substance," said one Arab diplomat. "They want to show everyone (in Washington) that there is regional consultation on Iraq and regional support for the surge."

With domestic pressure growing to pull out of Iraq, the Bush administration is scrambling to justify a temporary increase, or "surge," of 30,000 troops into the country before a progress report is due in September.

During the meetings, the pair is expected to provide an assessment of the surge and repeat earlier appeals for more Arab involvement in Iraq, particularly from Saudi Arabia.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the duo hoped for strong statements of support from Gulf countries.

"On all the stops, we will be wanting more active, positive support for Iraq and the Iraqi people," McCormack said.

Rice and Gates have both made several trips to the Middle East this year to call for more help with Iraq, where some 157,000 U.S. troops are battling sectarian violence, Sunni insurgents, Shi'ite militias and al Qaeda militants.

This will be the fifth meeting Rice will have had with the Gulf Cooperation Council over the past year, said a senior State Department official, who described the goal as creating a "regional foundation" to tackle Iraq.

"We are focusing on strengthening consensus with our Arab friends about the challenges in the region -- Iraq and Iran," said the official, who spoke on condition he was not named.

ACTION NOT PROMISES

Rice attended a conference of Iraq's neighbors in Sharm el-Sheikh in May and three working groups were formed to try and help Iraq.

However, none of these groups has yet met and Rice and Gates will be pushing for more action. "We want to get the working groups started and having them meet on a regular basis," said McCormack.

U.S. officials have acknowledged that some Sunni Arab nations harbor doubts about Iraq's Shi'ite-led government, fearing it will be unable to pacify the country and is too close politically to Shi'ite-dominated Iran.

Washington has long tried to persuade Sunni countries that the current Iraqi administration offers the best chance of success and has urged them to take measures such as opening embassies in Baghdad to boost the government's legitimacy.

U.S. officials have also asked Sunni Saudi Arabia to press Iraqi Sunnis not to take part in insurgent violence.

Gates warned Middle Eastern states in April that the consequences of a complete collapse in Iraq would be felt in the region well before they were felt in the United States.

Iraq's ambassador to the United States, Samir Sumaidaie, complained that Arab countries had not been forthcoming with help since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

"Initially there was a period of denial, then there was a period of hesitation, then there was a period of shy engagement and now we have to move onto a period of active, positive engagement," he said this week.

The U.S. ministers will also be canvassing support for a Middle East conference proposed by the White House for this autumn, with the goal of reviving Arab-Israeli peace efforts.

Arab countries have been pushing the Bush administration to pay more attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying there needs to be a broader approach to the Middle East rather than a narrow focus on Iraq.

"Efforts to separate Iraq and the Arab-Israeli conflict highlight the link between the two," Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said.

AlertNet news is provided by