Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday warned of a great loss of lives if Iraq was attacked.
"If some people want to get their hands on one person (Iraqi President Saddam Hussein), some 20,000 or 50,000 people might be killed," the official MENA news agency quoted Mubarak as saying in the southern city of Aswan.
He also urged Iraq not to obstruct the ongoing UN weapons inspections, which he termed as the last chance for Iraq to avoid awar.
"Iraq must cooperate with the inspectors so as not to provide a pretext for a war against it," the president said, adding it is essential for Iraq to restrain from making any statement like those which brought catastrophe on it in the past.
UN weapons inspectors resumed searches for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq on Nov. 27 after a four-year suspension.
Iraq presented a massive dossier detailing its programs about weapons of mass destruction to the UN headquarters in New York on Dec. 8.
Under UN Security Council Resolution 1441, Iraq must fully account for its weapons of mass destruction or face "serious consequences."
Egypt and other Arab nations feared that any war on Iraq would further destabilize the already deteriorating situation in the Mideast region.