United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon intended to attend the Arab League (AL) summit scheduled to be held in Baghdad late in March, an Iraqi official newspaper reported Thursday.

"United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, high-level officials of international organizations and foreign ambassadors intended to attend the opening session of the Baghdad Arab summit on March 29," the state-run newspaper al-Sabah quoted unnamed Arab sources as saying.

Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs Hoshyar Zebari met Wednesday with ambassadors of Arab countries to Baghdad and explained to them Baghdad's logistic and security preparations for the summit which will be preceded by a meeting for Arab economy ministers on March 27, while the foreign ministers will meet on March 28.

Zebari also confirmed that "Iraq is intending to send envoys on the level of ministers to submit official invitation letters to the Arab kings and presidents to attend the summit."

Earlier, Iraqi deputy foreign minister Labid Abbawi told local media that "all the (Arab) countries confirmed their participation on highest levels in the summit."

However, Abbawi said that "there might be exception from some countries for reasons of their own, but we have received promises that if the heads of the countries would not attend the summit they will be represented by highest level officials."

Iraqi authorities also announced that the day of the summit will be an official holiday and security measures will be tightened in the capital to avoid any possible security deterioration.

Early in February, AL Deputy Secretary General Ahmed bin Helli announced during his visit to Iraq that Baghdad will host the Arab summit on March 29.

The Arab summit was initially scheduled to be held in Baghdad in 2011, but was postponed to March 2012 due to the unrest in the region.