As the BBC World Service declared plans to launch a 24-hour Arab satellite channel reportedly to go head-to-head with Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based all-news channel remains calm in face of the coming competition.

According to press reports, British Foreign Office is set to develop a counter-weight to Al-Jazeera and Arab-run satellite stations that have proved popular in the region but used to stir indignation in Washington and London.

The British station will be modeled on the existing international television service BBC World with most program broadcast from London but staff based around the Middle East.

Al-Jazeera's director Wadah Khanfar has ruled out that BBC would pose any threat to the all-news Arab channel, as it "portrays news through Arab eyes and to Arab eyes, a case which does not work with other western Arab-language channels."

Nicknamed "the CNN of the Arab world", Al-Jazeera is the mostly watched channel in this part of the world. The station's officials plan the launch of an English satellite TV by next year.

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