Egypt's president says "time for change" in Syria

CAIRO (REUTERS) - Egypt's president, promising to put Cairo back at the heart of Arab affairs, made an impassioned appeal to Arab states on Wednesday to work for an end to the bloodshed in Syria and said the time had come to change the Syrian government.

Dr Mohamed Morsi, making his first presidential address to the Arab League in Cairo, also said a quartet of states - Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey and Egypt - would meet to discuss the Syrian crisis.

"The quartet which Egypt has called for will meet now," Dr Morsi told the Arab foreign ministers, although he did not give details of the gathering in his speech.

An Egyptian delegate said the president's comments meant there were contacts between the four states to discuss what action could be taken but that the formation of the quartet was still under discussion and no time had been set for their representatives to meet.