Cairo: The leaders of Jordan and Egypt held an emergency meeting in Cairo on Friday as thousands demonstrated across the Arab world against Israel's expanding assault on Lebanon.
It was the worst Israeli attack on its neighbour in 24 years.
Jordan's King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak discussed the Israeli incursions into the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, which have killed 86 Palestinians in Gaza and 61 people in Lebanon, many of them civilians.
The two held discussions, had lunch and then Abdullah left for Jordan a few hours later, Egypt's official news agency reported.
Nearly 5,000 people rallied nearby at Cairo's Al Azhar Mosque, the most prominent institution in the Arab world, to protest Israeli attacks on Palestinians and in Lebanon.
Chanting anti-Israel slogans, they carried banners that read 'No to Israel' and 'Hey Arab leaders, you should be united.'
In Amman, more than 2,000 demonstrators gathered at a mosque after Friday prayers, shouting 'Zionists get out, get out!' and 'Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan are one people!' Both rallies ended peacefully with no clashes reported.
Jordan and Egypt have taken a lead in efforts to support Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas amid infighting between his Fatah faction and Hamas, which runs the Palestinian government, as well as in Israeli-Palestinian clashes.
Egypt has also played a mediating role in the current escalation between Israel and Hamas officials.
US President George W. Bush phoned Mubarak early on Friday to talk about the escalations in Lebanon and Gaza, the agency reported.
The call could be an attempt by Bush to enlist Mubarak's help in the Lebanon crisis as well.
The two leaders 'tackled ways to contain the current exploding situation on the Lebanese stage' and violence in the Gaza Strip, the agency reported.
Abdullah also talked by phone with Bush, saying 'action' was needed to end Israel's military operations in Lebanon and Gaza, Jordan's official Petra news agency reported on Friday. He did not elaborate.
The speaker of Jordan's lower house of parliament, Abdul Hadi Majali, called on the international community to oppose Israel's actions, decrying them as a 'flagrant defiance' of international law, Petra reported.
Condemnations of Israel reverberated through the Arab world.
Arab foreign ministers were scheduled to hold an emergency meeting in Cairo on Saturday.
An aide to Arab League chief Amr Mousa, who called the meeting, told the Al Jazeera TV channel on Thursday that the Arab League would seek 'a unified Arab stance to avoid this aggression from expanding.'
In Sudan, President Omar Al Bashir said his country stands with the 'Palestinian mujahideen' and 'backs the steadfastness of the Lebanese resistance,' Sudan's official news agency reported.
In Iraq, the influential Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars issued a statement condemning the Israeli assaults and urging the international community not to be silent.
Some 700 protesters rallied after Friday prayers at a mosque in northern Bahrain, and another demonstration was planned later on Friday in Manama, participants said.
It ordinarily takes three days to get government approval for such demonstrations, but Bahraini authorities approved the rally 'immediately, out of sympathy for ongoing events,' Col Adel Al Fadhel, head of security in northern Bahrain, said.
