CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) -- The Arab League pledged Sunday to work for the lifting of U.N. trade sanctions on Iraq but fell far short of Iraqi demands to condemn the sanctions and last month's U.S.-British airstrikes.

A statement agreed to in a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Egypt only expressed "deep concern at the use of the military option against Iraq."

Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf stormed out of the meeting, saying he did not want to take part "in this rotting mire."

Al-Sahhaf said the weak statement was "a cover for resuming the U.S.-British airstrikes" and that America and some gulf countries pressured other delegates to adopt the resolution.

"They have been implementing what has been dictated to them by the Americans," he said. "They tried to blame Iraq."

The ministers continued to meet after al-Sahhaf walked out, and an Egyptian official said some ministers were pushing for changes in the statement.

The statement called on Iraq "to prove its peaceful intentions towards Kuwait and neighboring countries verbally and practically."

It also urged Iraq to acknowledge its mistake in invading Kuwait in 1990, which brought on the U.N. sanctions and the subsequent Gulf War.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said in comments printed Sunday that the country would be prepared to apologize for its mistakes if other Arab countries apologized to it.

"I don't say Iraq didn't make mistakes against this or that, but everybody has committed mistakes," Aziz was quoted as saying in the newspaper Babil. "If we all apologized to each other for all the mistakes we have committed, then we will be ready ... because apologizing is not a shame between brothers."

The Arab League meeting began with Arab officials criticizing the mid-December attack on Iraq. But they acknowledged the difficulty of forging a unified statement because of deep divisions over how to deal with the Iraqi situation. Originally scheduled in December, the meeting was delayed due to disagreements among the 22 league members.

Sources said on condition of anonymity that al-Sahhaf argued over every word in a draft resolution during the nearly eight-hour meeting.

In the end, the ministers largely followed past league statements expressing sympathy with the Iraqi people while not giving support to the government of President Saddam Hussein.

"The ministers ... expressed full solidarity with the Iraqi people in their suffering which resulted from the (U.N.) embargo and reiterate the necessity for international cooperation to lift the sanctions," their statement said.

"Arab governments ... will exert the required effort to end the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq," said the statement, which also called for a follow-up committee including Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, the Arab members of the U.N. Security Council and the Arab League head.

It said the efforts would be coordinated with the United Nations, and urged Iraq to cooperate with the Security Council to implement U.N. resolutions.

Under those resolutions, devastating economic sanctions against Iraq cannot be lifted until U.N. arms inspectors declare the country free of forbidden weapons.

The American and British forces launched missile and rocket attacks on Iraq from December 16 to December 19 to punish the Baghdad regime for failing to cooperate with the weapons inspectors.

After the airstrikes, Iraq said the inspectors, whom it frequently denounced as spies, would never be allowed back in the country.

The statement also said there should not be "double standards" with regard to Security Council resolutions, referring to Israel's "possession of weapons of mass destruction as well as threatening Arab lands."

The statement said there would be more talks on the possibility of an Arab summit.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.