Suspected drug dealers have shot and wounded two undercover police officers during an arrest operation in Bani Yas, state news agency WAM reported Tuesday.

"A first lieutenant and his colleague, a staff sergeant, came under fire in Bani Yas from drug dealers as the police officers tried to arrest them" Monday evening in the town, west of Abu Dhabi city, WAM reported.

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak arrived in the Qatari capital Doha Thursday after a two-day visit to Saudi Arabia, where he secured pledges to ensure a stable supply of oil to the East Asian nation.

He is on a regional tour that will also include a stop in the United Arab Emirates.

Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways on Thursday posted a net profit of $14 million for 2011, exceeding its goal of breaking even for the first time ever, a statement said.

The national carrier of the United Arab Emirates said its revenues were up 36 percent in 2011 to $4.1 billion, with net profit touching $14 million.

Gulf Arab states have decided to pull their observers sent to Syria as part of an Arab League mission out of the restive country, they announced in a joint official statement on Tuesday.

"Gulf Cooperation Council states have decided to follow Saudi Arabia's decision to pull out its observers from the Arab League mission in Syria," the GCC statement said.

China's Sinopec clinched a "strategic" energy cooperation agreement with the UAE's state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), the official WAM news agency reported Tuesday.

The agreement, inked on the sidelines of an energy conference in the United Arab Emirates capital, came two days after Saudi state oil giant Aramco inked a deal with the Chinese company to build an oil refinery in the Red Sea city of Yanbu that will process some 400,000 barrels per day.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon's fourth visit to Lebanon, which starts on Friday, is expected to focus on the controversial Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) and the deadly crisis in n Syria.

A government source told Agence France Presse that Ban was expected to address Lebanon's duties to the STL that has charged four Hizbullah operatives in the 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri.

Debt-crippled Greece's budget deficit is expected to hit 9.6 percent of economic output in 2011, about half a percentage point above target, the development minister acknowledged Wednesday.

Michalis Chryssochoidis said that an increase in the use of European Union structural development funds had contributed to lowering government overspending from 10.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2010.

The UAE's foreign minister accused the Syrian regime on Tuesday of not facilitating the job of Arab League observers, lamenting the latest reported attacks on the envoys.

"The job of the observers is getting more difficult day after day ... We do not see a commitment from the Syrian side that would allow them" do their job, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan told reporters in Abu Dhabi.

Oil prices rose on Monday after the United States stepped up pressure on Iran over the Islamic Republic's threat to close the Strait of Hormuz -- a key shipping route for oil exports to the West.

Brent North Sea crude for delivery in February climbed 33 cents to $113.39 a barrel in early London deals.

A pipeline being built by the United Arab Emirates to export oil from east coast terminals, avoiding the Iran-threatened Strait of Hormuz, will be operational by June, its energy minister said Monday.

"The pipeline is almost complete. It will be operational within six months ... by May or June," Mohammed bin Dhaen al-Hameli told reporters.