Foreign ministers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council called on the international community to exert pressure on Israel to withdraw from Palestinian Authority territory and for the resumption of Middle East peace talks.

The ministers, meeting in the Red Sea port city of Jiddah, urged the United States, Russia, European Union and United Nations to "exert utmost efforts and pressure on the Israeli government to fully withdraw its troops from Palestinian lands that were reoccupied after Sept. 28 (2000)."

In a statement issued after an emergency meeting called by Saudi Arabia, the foreign ministers reaffirmed their countries' adherence to a Saudi peace initiative adopted by all Arab nations at an Arab League summit in Beirut, Lebanon, at the end of March.

The Saudi formula offered Israel normal relations with Arab nations once it withdraws from all Arab land seized in the 1967 Mideast war, recognizes a Palestinian state and accepts a just solution to the problem of Palestinian refugees.

The GCC, a loose political and economic alliance, groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

GCC foreign ministers, while supporting the steadfastness of the Palestinian people, stressed that "peace is the strategic choice of the Arab nation."

They called for the "resumption of serious peace talks based on the Saudi initiative and other world efforts," particularly past U.N. resolutions and the principle of exchanging land for peace.

The ministers said the ruling Israeli Likud Party's decision denying the establishment of a Palestinian state "lays obstacles in the peace road, further complicates matters and contradicts international efforts to achieve peace."

"Peace in the region could only be achieved through the existence of a Palestinian state and an Israeli state that live side-by-side in peace and security," the statement said.