CAIRO, Egypt —

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In a gathering marred by Israeli attacks on Gaza and pressured by the languishing world economy, leaders of the six Gulf Arab nations are gearing up for a zenith in that they are expected to tackle head-on a long-elusive monetary union agreement.

The two-day meeting, beginning Monday in the Omani capital, Muscat, has been touted as a key step in helping the Gulf Cooperation Council’s six member states realize a goal of a everyday currency and broader economic unity. The push is made all the more relevant through the global economic rub that has hit hard even these oil rich nations.

Officials on Sunday said Israeli atmosphere strikes on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, which have left by 280 Palestinians gone to one’s last home and sparked shock from first to last the Arab world, would not derail the meeting. But the violence would clearly commission merchant into the summit agenda, as well as in the GCC foreign ministers meeting which precedes the main gathering.

Omani Information Minister Hamed al-Rashid related the Palestinian issue is always onward the minds of the GCC leaders and “without exist doubtful, the events in Gaza will have being at the forefront of the upcoming meetings.”

While the leaders are expected to discuss the current financial meltdown, analysts and economists are watching to see what steps the officials will take to push at the same time a plan for a GCC common currency, which is scheduled to be launched in 2010. Also important are their efforts to finalize minutiae for the precursor to the bloc’session new central bank.

“This meeting is quite of great weight since they exercise volition have to outline what they’re going to be doing prior to 2010, and they will also have to advance out quite concretely about what is to come of that deadline,” said John Sfakianakis, chief economist at the Saudi British Bank.

The GCC, which includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain, has been discussing setting up a common currency for years if it were not that the issue has been stymied by political bickering and infighting.

While progress has been delaying in bringing the nations in the same place, the global fiscal meltdown has injected renewed flourishing condition into efforts to push the oil-rich members toward closer economic cooperation.

GCC Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Hamad al-Attiyah told the pan-Arab daily newspaper Al-Hayat that leaders were well convinced of the need to reach a joint agreement on how to tackling the pecuniary crisis.

In an interview with the English-language Oman Tribune, Bahrain’s prime minister, Sheik Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa said the “integration of Gulf countries has befit unavoidable.”

“At a time when the whole world is moving toward the establishment of economic blocs, it is high time that we accelerated the remaining steps for the economic integration of GCC states,” he was quoted as saying.

So far, reaped ground country has been taking its concede steps to tackling the crisis, adopting measure ranging from cutting interest rates, injecting ready money into the economy, guaranteeing deposits and lowering cash reserve requirements for banks.

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