The outgoing head of the Arab League said yesterday he had urged the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, to stop "criminal" Israeli attacks on Palestinians.
Mr Esmat Abdel-Meguid, on his final day as secretary-general of the 22-nation league, said he had written to Mr Annan calling for immediate UN intervention to protect the Palestinians.
This was needed to "curb the criminal military operations undertaken by the forces of the extremist and terrorist [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon against the Palestinian people".
At least 421 Palestinians, 79 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed since a revolt against Israeli occupation flared in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in September.
Mr Abdel-Meguid said he had asked Mr Annan to convene an emergency session of the Security Council to approve an international protection force for the Palestinians, even if it risked provoking a US veto. In March the United States vetoed a council resolution calling for an unarmed international protection force for the Palestinians.
Egypt's President, Mr Hosni Mubarak, and his visiting Palestinian counterpart, Mr Yasser Arafat, held talks earlier yesterday on the report of a commission led by former US Senator George Mitchell and a joint Egyptian-Jordanian initiative to end the Israeli-Palestinian fighting and renew peace talks.
Egypt's Mr Amr Moussa takes over the helm of the Arab League from Mr Abdel-Meguid tomorrow. Mr Mubarak swore in Mr Ahmed Maher to replace Mr Moussa as Foreign Minister earlier yesterday.
Meanwhile, in Damascus, hundreds of Arab writers, artists and intellectuals yesterday urged their governments to let Arabs volunteer fight Israel.
The call came during a demonstration by Syrian, Palestinian, Iraqi, Sudanese, Yemeni and other Arab intellectuals in the Syrian capital.
A statement read at the demonstration by Ali Oqla Orsan, head of the Damascus-based Arab Writers' Union urged Arabs to drop peace with Israel as a strategic option and seek other means to liberate the occupied Arab territories.
The Cuban President, Dr Fidel Castro, opened talks in Damascus with President Bashar al-Assad on latest developments in the Arab-Israeli conflict immediately after arriving on his first visit to Syria.