KUWAIT CITY -- Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani is due in Kuwait Saturday for talks on his country's mysterious "row" with Saudi Arabia, a newspaper reported.

Kuwait will convey to the visiting minister its concern that "inter-Gulf relations will be harmed" if the dispute prompts Riyadh to stay away from the annual year-end summit of Persian Gulf Arab states to be hosted by Doha, Saturday's ***Al-Rai al-Aam ***quoted a high-ranking diplomatic source as saying.

The Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily ***Al-Hayat ***reported Friday that a fresh row had erupted between Riyadh and Doha, although neither side was speaking openly about it or saying what it is about. It said "Persian Gulf diplomatic sources" confirmed there was a problem, not the first of its kind between the two Gulf partners. They refused to give details, but said it was unlikely the row was sparked by a program on Al-Jazeera satellite channel earlier this month which hosted "former Saudi Islamist dissidents." However, ***Al-Rai al-Aam's ***source said the dispute was "basically due to a buildup of tension resulting from practices by Al-Jazeera and its behavior in some programs that mentioned Riyadh." Kuwait would urge Qatar to show good will toward Riyadh and argue that Al-Jazeera's conduct was "harming all Gulf people," the paper said, adding that the Qatari foreign minister might go on to Saudi Arabia in an effort to "contain the conflict." Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah told reporters after returning from a lightning visit to Jeddah on Tuesday that Kuwait was not mediating and that "the two brotherly countries would settle the issue soon."

***Al-Hayat ***said Sheikh Sabah's remarks were one sign of the Saudi-Qatari chill. An earlier sign came when Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal skipped Doha on a recent tour of member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates alongside Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Speculation about the row was fueled by a July 11 incident in which an armed Saudi entered the Qatari consulate in Jeddah, the daily said.

Qatar's Consul in Jeddah said the man, who was eventually arrested, sought political asylum.

Riyadh said he was an ex-drug convict.

Qatar usually cites "press freedom" in recurrent tiffs with fellow Arab states, including Kuwait, over Al-Jazeera, a popular news channel which shot to world fame with scoops on suspected terror mastermind Osama bin Laden and the early stages of the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan, AFP reported.