KHARTOUM (AFP) - Sudan's highest religious authority has issued a fatwa that President Omar al-Bashir, targeted by an international arrest warrant, should not attend an Arab summit in Qatar. The fatwa, issued by the Committee of Muslim Scholars, said that despite Khartoum's insistence that Bashir would go to the March 29-30 Doha summit, he should not attend because "the enemies of the nation are creeping around." "It is inadmissible for the president of the republic to take part in the Arab League summit in Qatar under current conditions while the enemies of the nation are creeping around," local media quoted the text as saying. The International Criminal Court on March 4 issued an arrest warrant against Bashir for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur and there has been speculation about his possible arrest if he leaves Sudan. "Because you are the symbol and the guardian of the nation... we think that the conditions are not right (to attend the summit) and that this task can be carried out by persons other than yourself," the fatwa said. The ICC does not have a police force and therefore calls on signatory states to implement warrants. Qatar has not ratified the Rome Statute, which set up the court, although as a member of the United Nations it is urged to cooperate with the court. Besides the possibility of his arrest in Qatar, some officials in Sudan fear that Bashir's presidential jet could be intercepted by other states once out of Sudanese airspace. Bashir's trip to Qatar would be his first trip abroad since the warrant was issued. Several Sudanese newspapers have already called on Bashir not to travel, including the Akher Lahza which warned against going to Qatar because it hosts a major military base of the US, which has also not signed up for the ICC. "The decision has not yet been taken," Sudanese presidential spokesman Mahjub Fadl told AFP on Sunday. A decision would be taken in the coming days, he said. Appeals for Bashir not to travel are offering the president a face-saving way out of the ICC bind, a Sudanese commentator said on condition of anonymity. The Arab League and the African Union have both criticised the warrant as not helping to end the six-year-old Darfur conflict and called for the United Nations to exercise its right to defer it. The United Nations says 300,000 people have died in the conflict between ethnic minority rebels and the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum, which puts the figure at only 10,000. An estimated 2.7 million people more have fled their homes.