GCC defense ministers have ended meeting in Abu Dhabi on November 17 without any pact having been signed and they even didn't mention when next meeting will be held.

Analysts here say the failure to sign the pact reflects that the six allies still differed on the issue of military integration, although they have made great progress toward this end.

A major difference may lie in the choosing of potential enemies. For example, the six GCC members hold ostensibly different views as to whether Iran should be regarded as a friend or foe.

Iran and the UAE have been locked in a decades-long dispute over the sovereignty of Abu Musa, the Greater and Lesser Tunbs, the three strategic Gulf islands which are now under Iranian control.

The GCC have repeatedly vowed support to the UAE's claim of sovereignty over the islands, but Saudi Arabia, a powerful member of the alliance, has in recent years become more inclined to improving ties with Tehran, which makes the UAE irritated.

In October, Chief of Staff of the UAE armed forces Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan called on the Gulf Arab states to overcome obstacles to closer military cooperation.

Key plans include taking practical steps to establish a secured military communications network including radar coverage and early warning system among the six states as well as holding joint military exercises, he suggested.

The six states, which depend mainly on western powers for their armament, are keeping a 4,000-strong joint defense force, known as the Peninsula Shield, which currently uses a Saudi army base in Hafar al-Batin.