CAIRO, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Arab League (AL) and Egyptian officials hailed on Thursday the U.S. bipartisan Iraq Study Group (ISG) report on U.S. strategy in Iraq issued on Wednesday as an important report with positive contents.

    The report had several positive aspects, said Arab League Assistant Secretary General for Palestinian Affairs Mohammad Sobeih in a statement to MENA, and especially underlined its part on the Palestinian cause.

    The ISG, Co-chaired by former Representative Lee Hamilton and former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker, blamed the United States for turning a deaf ear to repeated warnings that the core of the Mideast conflict was the Palestinian cause, he said.

    Washington's siding with Israel was harmful to all parties, including the United States and Israel themselves, he added.

    Sobeih called for putting into effect the commission's recommendations vis-a-vis the Palestinian cause, noting that the ISG report was welcomed by many Palestinian leaders.

    The bipartisan ISG issued on Wednesday the highly-anticipated report that recommends major changes in the Bush administration's Iraq policy, which it says is "not working."

    It recommends the Bush administration to launch new diplomatic initiative in Mideast and shift most U.S. troops in Iraq to non combat roles by early 2008, though stopped short of putting a timetable for withdrawal.

    Meanwhile, Egyptian Foreign Affairs Council Chairman and former Egyptian ambassador to the United States Abd Raouf el-Ridy told Xinhua on Thursday that he welcomed the ISG report, noting that the report is totally different from the Bush administration's policy on Iraq during the past several years, which admits that the Bush's policy on Iraq encountered defeat.

    The report is positive in that it calls on the Bush administration to make more contacts and negotiations with Mideast countries to solve the Mideast issue and take a more active stance and contact with Iran and Syria to solve the conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians, el-Ridy said, adding it's crucial to implement these recommendations.

    The Bush administration had no choice but to adopt and implement them, el-Ridy stressed.

    The report came out at a time when Bush is under growing pressure to make major adjustment to his Iraq policy, in the aftermath of his Republican Party's defeat in last month's midterm elections.

    The congressionally-commissioned Iraq Study Group was formed in March and comprises 10 political heavyweights from both parties, with the sole mission to advise the Bush administration on Iraq policy.