A powerful sandstorm blowing over the Gulf has disrupted air traffic in Yemen, and closed schools and sent hundreds of people to hospital with respiratory problems in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi ministry of education announced on Monday the closure of schools in the north, east and south-west of the desert kingdom, a day after similar measures were taken in the capital Riyadh, the official SPA news agency reported.

Iraq's deputy foreign minister voiced support on Saturday for the idea of peacekeeping forces manned exclusively by Arab League troops but stopped short of backing a Qatari proposal to deploy one in Syria.

Labid Abbawi's remarks come ahead of an Arab summit due in Baghdad on March 29, the first meeting of the 22-nation bloc in the Iraqi capital since the late dictator Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The Kuwaiti parliament voted on Wednesday to set up probes into allegations of corruption, smuggling and torture, the state KUNA news agency reported.

Members of the new opposition-dominated parliament agreed to set up two commissions of inquiry into allegations of corruption relating to members of the previous parliament, KUNA said.

Kuwait agreed a $500 million deal with Baghdad during a visit by Iraqi Premier Nouri al-Maliki on Wednesday, ending a decades-long debt dispute that saw an Iraqi Airways flight impounded in London.

The agreement comes amid a two-day trip by Maliki and several of his senior ministers ahead of an Arab League summit in Baghdad at the end of the month, the first to be held in the Iraqi capital since now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Several Kuwaiti lawmakers have voiced strong objections to a planned visit to their country by Energy and Water Minister Jebran Bassil, noting that “he is an ardent supporter of the oppressive Syrian regime.”

“Bassil’s stances in support of the Syrian killing machine against the unarmed Syrian people make him unwelcome in Kuwait,” said MP Badr al-Dahoum, spokesman of the Justice parliamentary bloc, stressing that “guests who visit Kuwait must respect the official and popular stance on the Syrian regime.”

Russia on Saturday said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made clear to the U.N.-Arab League envoy for Syria Kofi Annan that Moscow is opposed to "crude interference" from the outside into Syrian internal affairs.

"A particular emphasis was placed on the inadmissibility of trampling on international legal norms, including through crude interference in Syria's internal affairs," the foreign ministry said after a meeting earlier between Lavrov and Annan in Cairo.

Kuwaiti MP on Tuesday demanded to question the new prime minister in parliament over corruption allegations which led to the collapse of the last government and dissolution of the house.

Shiite MP Saleh Ashour, a staunch supporter of the former premier, charged that current Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak al-Sabah had failed to take action on two major corruption scandals.

Kuwait's parliament adopted on Thursday a non-binding resolution calling on the government to arm the Syrian opposition and to sever diplomatic ties with Damascus.

The vote came following an emergency session to debate developments in Syria, where thousands of people have been killed in a bloody crackdown by the regime of President Bashar Assad on pro-democracy protests.

Gulf foreign ministers will meet their Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in the Saudi capital next week to discuss developments in Syria, Kuwait's foreign minister said on Thursday.

"A meeting will be held with the Russian foreign minister and the foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council on March 7 in Riyadh," Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah told Kuwaiti MPs.

Kuwaiti MPs overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Wednesday calling on the government to recognize the opposition Syrian National Council as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

Forty-four members including all cabinet ministers present voted in favor of the non-binding resolution, while five MPs opposed it.