Arab foreign ministers accused the US of bias towards Israel on Saturday and called on the UN Security Council to force Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territories.
Following an emergency meeting at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, the ministers issued a communique asking the UN Security Council to "issue a resolution based on Chapter 7 to force Israel to immediately and fully implement those resolutions".
Chapter 7 allows the use of sanctions and even military force to enforce Security Council resolutions.
After the meeting, Mr Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, warned that the Arab world wanted bias towards Israel, particularly from the US, to end, saying that it had "encouraged the Israeli military and political establishment to do what they are doing, believing they are under protection and have the green light to kill and . . . put an end to the process of peace".
The ministers also made clear their support for Mr Yasser Arafat as the "authorised person to negotiate in the name of the Palestinian people", in response to President Bush's earlier criticism of the Palestinian leader.
The emergency meeting followed a week of demonstrations and unprecedented outbursts of popular anger in Arab countries.
Much of the discontent has focused on the inaction of Arab regimes against Israel's invasion of the West Bank and the request for a Security Council resolution, even if binding, is unlikely to placate the Arab activists.