Arab foreign ministers meeting in Egypt agreed Thursday on the formation of a joint military force, the Arab League chief and the Egyptian foreign minister said.

The plan forms part of a draft resolution to be submitted to Arab leaders at a weekend summit in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Egypt's air force and Navy are participating in a Saudi-led intervention against Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen, the presidency said in a statement on Thursday.

The government had previously said it would be prepared to commit ground troops as well if required.

Lebanon on Thursday took an ambiguous stance that is in the vein of its famous “dissociation policy” towards regional conflicts, voicing support for any joint Arab action that “reassures everyone,” after Saudi warplanes bombed Shiite rebels in Yemen and sparked Iranian warnings.

“Any joint Arab action is lauded if it is based on standards that guarantee (the interests of) everyone, reassure everyone and involve everyone,” Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil said, addressing a meeting for Arab FMs in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi declared his full support on Thursday for Saudi-led air strikes againts Huthi rebels in Yemen.

"I affirm complete support" for the campaign, he said at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers. "It is an operation against targets belonging to the Huthis who committed a coup."

Four Egyptian warships entered the Suez Canal on Thursday en route to the Gulf of Aden after Egypt pledged military support for a Saudi-led campaign against rebels in Yemen, canal officials said.

The officials said the ships will take part in operations "to secure" the strategic waters that control southern access to the Suez Canal.

Saudi-led strikes on Yemeni rebels are set to dominate an Arab summit that will consider forming a joint military force as several countries in the region teeter on the brink of collapse.

For years Arab states had contented themselves with directing proxies in regional struggles.

Freed Australian Al-Jazeera reporter Peter Greste on Thursday called for the international community to continue supporting his colleagues in Egypt, stressing that they were still on trial.

Greste was detained along with two colleagues, Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed, in December 2013, before he was deported last month after intense diplomatic pressure.

Egypt's president called Wednesday for a "new chapter" in relations with Ethiopia, but nevertheless underscored his country's insistence on standing by its rights to tap Nile water.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's speech to the Ethiopian parliament marked the end of the first such official visit by an Egyptian leader in 30 years, and comes amid a major easing of tensions over Addis Ababa's controversial Nile dam project.

Former interior minister Habib al-Adly of ousted president Hosni Mubarak walked free from an Egyptian jail Wednesday after his acquittal last week of corruption charges, officials and his lawyer said.

"He has completed the procedures and he has come out," interior ministry spokesman General Hani Abdel Latif told Agence France-Presse.

A 10-year-old girl was killed on Wednesday when an improvised bomb she picked up near her school exploded in the Fayum province, west of Cairo, Egyptian police said.

The girl had tripped over a rudimentary bomb that was placed outside her school and it exploded once she picked it up, a police official said.