UNITED NATIONS, April 1: To the consternation of United States, the Arab envoys on Monday decided to seek an emergency session of the 191-member United Nations General Assembly in a bid to stop war in Iraq, diplomats here said.

Malaysian Ambassador Rastam M. Isa, who heads the group of Nonaligned countries at the UN, plans to request the special session, in a letter to Portuguese UN Ambassador Goncalo de Santa Clara Gomes, who is the Acting President of UN General Assembly.

However, the United States opposed to such a meeting is lobbying member nations around the world to head off such a session which could be very embarrassing for Washington and London. Any resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly are non-binding but carry moral weight of the international community’s opinion.

But as one Arab diplomat put it “the point of the request (the UNGA Session) is to save the lives of Iraqi civilians.”

“We will ask for a cease-fire and a return to peaceful disarmament in Iraq,” he said.

Last week Arab nations and the non-aligned countries were unable to secure nine votes in the 15-member UN Security Council calling for an end to US-led war against Iraq. Arab diplomats said they were seeking the assembly meeting on orders from Arab foreign ministers.