"It is of utmost importance that all brotherly Arab countries, the Arab league and its affiliates help guarantee the territorial integrity of Iraq, its independence and reconstruction so that its people can control their own lives," it said in a statement.

The committee said the United Nations should confine itself to a humanitarian role while also ensuring the "protection of the Iraqi national destiny and that of its people" without allowing anyone to take control of or divide the country.

The PLO stressed its solidarity with the Iraqi people whose cause "exemplifies the struggle for freedom, progress and construction in every Arab country".

The PLO and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction have consistently supported Saddam Hussein's regime, including when Iraq seized Kuwait in late 1990, leading to the 1991 Gulf war.

Thousands of Palestinian demonstrators have also taken to the streets to protest the US-led war in Iraq that began on March 20.

The statement was released in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where the PLO executive committee is currently meeting along with Fatah's central committee to discuss the future Palestinian government, which is expected to be announced by newly-appointed prime minister Mahmud Abbas within the next two weeks.

SPACE.WIRE