Cairo, Egypt ? America’s allies in the Arab world fear a U.S. strike on Iraq would thrust their already unstable region into chaos, and they and others are urging Baghdad to act to avoid war.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Tuesday that Arab leaders would not be able to contain outrage in the street in event of a U.S. attack on Iraq.

“There might be repercussions, and we fear a state of disorder and chaos,” Mubarak said at a question-and-answer session with Egyptian university students in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria.

Mubarak, who sent his troops against Iraq a decade ago as part of the U.S.-led Gulf War coalition, said that this time he had warned the United States against attacking Iraq while Palestinian-Israeli violence is roiling the Arab street.

Arabs, though, also have reason to be wary of Saddam. He invaded a fellow Arab state, Kuwait, in 1990, setting off the 1991 Gulf War.

Tuesday at the Cairo headquarters of the Arab League, diplomats say, permanent representatives clashed over an Iraqi request to include an Arab message of support for Iraq on the agenda of a regional foreign ministers meeting set for next week.

Many Arab governments wanted to include wording urging Iraq to accept the return of U.N. weapons inspectors, while Baghdad instead sought a firm Arab statement of solidarity, the diplomats said. In the end, they accepted a formula proposed by the Palestinian ambassador to the league, Mohammed Sobeih, that they discuss threats against “some Arab countries, especially Iraq.”

U.N. sanctions imposed on Baghdad after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait cannot be lifted until inspectors certify that Iraq’s biological, chemical and nuclear weapons have been destroyed. U.N. weapons inspectors left Iraq in 1998 and Baghdad has barred them from returning, claiming it has met all U.N. requirements.

King Abdullah II of Jordan, another close U.S. ally in the region, told his countrymen in a speech earlier this month that he rejected U.S. war threats against Iraq. But, he added “the decision in the end is that of the Iraqi leadership, they bear the responsibility before their people, (the Arab) nation and the world.”

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheik Hamad told reporters during a visit Monday to Baghdad that Qatar opposed any military strikes, but wanted Iraq to accept the return of U.N. weapons inspectors.

The governments of Lebanon, Oman, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates, along with non-Arab Iran, have all repeatedly expressed their opposition to a U.S. military strike against Iraq, saying both countries should solve the dispute through diplomatic means. They also have urged Iraq to abide by U.N. resolutions on weapons inspections.