CAIRO: Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in the Muslim world to rally against the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, urging Sunni-Shi'ite unity to defeat the Jewish state.Under the watchful eye of security police, protesters in Cairo shouted anti-Israel slogans and condemned Arab leaders' reluctance to show their support for Hizbollah.

Protesters in other cities also took to the streets including several thousand in Tripoli, Libya.

About 2,000 angry demonstrators shouted praise for Hizbollah in downtown Amman, Jordan.

Demonstrators in Pakistan burned Israeli and US flags, and protesters in Indonesia and Malaysia accused the Jewish state of terrorism.

About 2,000 Muslims also marched through the streets of the Bangladesh's capital of Dhaka.

More than 300 members of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada's Al Sadr's armed movement marched in the Baghdad neighbourhood of Sadr City chanting support for Hizbollah.

More than 100,000 people in Yemen turned out for a rally in support of the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples in the face of the Israeli blitz.

In Jakarta, about 300 people blocked traffic at a key road junction in the Indonesian capital waving banners and Palestinian flags.

About 600 people also rallied in the southern city of Karachi, 200 attended a similar protest in the eastern city of Lahore, and 150 religious students turned out in the capital, Islamabad.

Several thousand people in Berlin also protested against Israel's bombing campaign in Lebanon.

In addition to anti-Israel slogans in Berlin, there were many posters attacking the United States and US President George W Bush for supporting Israel.

"Olmert and Bush are terrorists," shouted a demonstrator to the crowd, referring to Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

"Israel drinks the blood of our children," said one of the posters carried by a demonstrator draped in a Lebanese flag in the German capital.

In Khartoum, former Sudanese prime minister and opposition politician Sadiq Al Mahdi led a peaceful protest of about 1,000 people to show solidarity with Lebanon and the Palestinians and to condemn Israel.

Police said about 4,000 people turned out in Tripoli to support Nasrallah and to urge him to attack Tel Aviv.

Meanwhile, thousands of people are expected to take part in demonstrations across Britain today to vent their anger at the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon, organisers said.

UN relief agencies, in a clear appeal to Israel, yesterday called for safe passage to take vital medical supplies and food to tens of thousands of people who have fled their homes amid Israeli bombing in Lebanon.

The agencies also warned that disease could sweep through packed refugee centres and overwhelmed hospitals unless Israel promised it would not attack trucks ready to take in water purification and sanitation supplies.