The European Union has condemned what it called Israel's killing of Palestinian Hamas movement leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and said it undermined the legal basis for fighting terrorism.
"The Council condemned the extra-judicial killing of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas leader, and seven other Palestinians by Israeli forces this morning," EU foreign ministers said in a joint statement at their regular monthly meeting.
EU foreign ministers joint statement
"Not only are extra-judicial killings contrary to international law, they undermine the concept of the rule of law which is a key element in the fight against terrorism," the ministers said, while recalling past EU condemnations of suicide bombings claimed by Hamas, fighting for Israel's destruction.
Britain earlier condemned the killing and said it was unlikely to help fight terrorism. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on arrival at the European Union foreign ministers' meeting that although Israel had a right to defend itself against terrorism, it could not use means outside international law.
"We therefore condemn it. It's unacceptable, it's unjustified, and it's very unlikely to achieve its objective," he told reporters.
Hamas said it believed Washington had given the green light for Yassin's assassination.
But speaking on morning television interviews, White House national security adviser Ms Condoleezza Rice said the United States did not have advance warning of the assassination.
"It is very important that everyone step back now and try now to be calm in the region. There is always a possibility of a better day in the Middle East," Ms Rice told NBC's Todayshow.
The killing incensed the Arab and Muslim world, sparking calls for revenge against the Jewish state and predictions the region would plunge deeper into violence.
Mr Mohamed Mahdi Akef, leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, called it "an unforgivable crime" and said the Palestinians should not lay down their arms because violence was the only language that Israel understood.
"We will not rest, we will not sleep until the last Zionist leaves our territory," Mr Akef said. The influential Brotherhood group shares the Islamist views of Hamas.
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said Israel was mistaken if it thought violence could suppress the will of the Palestinians. "Assassinating any symbol cannot kill those rights but will increase the resistance . . . Israel will find the same fate in the occupied territories as it found in south Lebanon," he said.
In Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said: "This is a criminal act and a further example of the Zionist regime's barbarity . . .
the Zionist regime will plunge further into the crisis it brought upon itself."