CAIRO, April 25: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called on Sunday for greater international involvement to legitimise the occupation of Iraq and find a just settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict , in implied criticism of the United States.

In a televised speech marking the 25th anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from the Sinai desert, Mubarak blasted the US-led occupation of Iraq as illegal and called for the United Nations to play a larger role there.

"We will continue to support with all our might the new orientation of the Iraqi people and the international community aimed at giving an increased role to the UN (in Iraq)," he said.

Mr Mubarak said UN involvement would create the "legal framework necessary to better contribute to the return of stability and safety" in the country, which was going through a "drama without precedent in its history".

The US-led occupation is "unjustified and without legal foundation" and coalition forces in Iraq are incapable of ensuring security or "territorial integrity" for the Iraqi people, he said.

The President also said the international community, especially the so-called quartet of the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States, should spell out the steps required for the creation of a Palestinian state.

This meant setting clear dates for "reciprocal engagements" between the Israelis and the Palestinians at each stage of the implementation of the stalled peace roadmap.

He said it was important not to prejudice any questions which were central to the resolution of the conflict, notably the right of return of the Palestinian refugees of 1948, the integrity of the pre-1967 borders, and the issue of Jerusalem.

Egypt has denounced Washington's support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's controversial plan to unilaterally pull out of the Gaza Strip while leaving Jewish settlements in parts of the occupied West Bank.

The proposal has been condemned throughout the Middle East as a modification of Israel's 1967 borders and a denial of the Palestinian refugees' right of return. Egypt remains committed to the peace roadmap which aims at to creating a Palestinian state in 2005, but local commentators including Ibrahim Nafee of daily Al-Ahram, have described it as "in agony if not dead already".

Meanwhile Mubarak addressed an "urgent" message to Bush over the Israeli threat to kill Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the MENA news agency reported. Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher told the agency the message concerned the "dangerous character" of the threat, made by Sharon last week.

Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei arrived in Cairo on Sunday to discuss the threat, which has drawn sharp international criticism including from the United States. He called it "dangerous and frightening" before heading into talks with Mubarak.

Maher has already said that any strike against Arafat, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, would be an "unpardonable crime". Sharon's threat came in the wake of Israel's assassinations of two leaders of Hamas movement, which has claimed responsibility for numerous suicide bombings against Israeli targets. -AFP