CAIRO, Nov 12: Top Arab diplomats on Sunday decided to lift the financial blockade on Palestinians in response to a US veto on a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

''We decided not to cooperate with it (the blockade). There will no longer be an international siege,'' said Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheik Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa.

On Saturday, the vetoed the Security Council draft resolution that condemned the Israeli military offensive and demands that Israeli troops pull out of the territory.

Sunday's discussions on the offensive were attended by 11 Arab foreign ministers and other senior officials and diplomats at the Cairo headquarters of the Arab League.

Top Arab diplomats began discussions on Sunday to try to hammer out a response to the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip, which saw over 50 people killed over a few days last week.

The meeting was overshadowed by a US veto Saturday of a UN Security Council draft resolution that condemns the Israeli military offensive and demands that Israeli troops pullout of the territory. Sunday's discussions were attended by 11 Arab foreign ministers and other senior officials and diplomats at the Cairo headquarters of the Arab League.

''There should be a unified Arab stance in support of the Palestinians against what Israeli is doing,'' said the League's Undersecretary General Mohammed Sobeih, a Palestinian diplomat.

He said the Arab officials may consider asking the UN General Assembly to debate what he called the ''Israeli massacres'' after the American veto in the Council.

''It is shocking. Every time the United States exercises its veto power, it gives a license to Israeli extremists and generals whose hands are stained with Palestinian blood,'' Sobeih said.

Ahead of the meeting, league Secretary-General Amr Moussa said he called the gathering at the request of the Palestinians and Lebanon to ''look into practical steps and measures to deal with Israel's ongoing and recurring aggression against the Palestinian people.''

Israeli artillery killed 18 civilians in a crowded Gaza neighbourhood of Beit Hanoun on Wednesday, the latest bloodshed in Israel's weeklong offensive meant to halt militant rocket attacks.

The incident marked the highest number of Palestinian civilians killed in a single strike since fighting erupted six years ago, and undermined Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' attempts to form a more moderate government and renew a peace process with Israel.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, of the Hamas militant group, participated in Sunday's meeting and Arab diplomats said he proposed to convene an emergency Arab summit to ''discuss the deteriorating situation in the Palestinian territories''.

It was the second US veto of a council draft resolution concerning Israeli military operations in Gaza this year. The US blocked action on a document this summer after Israel launched its offensive in response to the capture of an Israeli soldier by Hamas-linked Palestinian militants.—AP