Gulf states have asked the Arab League to cancel a summit scheduled to be held in Baghdad in May, the Bahraini foreign minister said on Tuesday, after Iraq criticised Bahrain's crackdown on protesters.

'Gulf Cooperation Council, in a letter to the Arab League secretary general, asks for cancellation of planned Arab summit in Iraq,' Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa said in a Twitter posting. He gave no reason for the move.

The Arab summit was originally scheduled to be held in Iraq in March, but was delayed until May due to the unrest that has gripped several countries in the Middle East.-Reuters