* MOSCOW RECALLS DIPLOMATS FROM WASHINGTON, LONDON * CHINA PROTESTS SECOND STRIKE AT IRAQ * IRAN, N. KOREA, INDIA, PAKISTAN, MALAYSIA RAPS MISSILE ATTACKS ON IRAQ * RUSSIA CONSIDERS UNILATERAL LIFTING OF IRAQI SANCTIONS * VIOLATION OF IRAN'S TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY CONDEMNED * ARAB LEAGUE CALLS AN EMERGENCY MEETING * ARABS CRITICIZE U.S. ATTACKS, FEARING MORE HARM TO IRAQIS * RUSSIA PROPOSES IRAQ PEACE PLAN * U.S. `UNAWARE' OF MISSILE HITTING KHORRAMSHAHR * KHARRAZI, IVANOV REVIEW IRAQI CRISIS ON PHONE TEHRAN Russia Friday threatened to freeze its relations with Washington and London, which President Boris Yeltsin said have grown "very complicated" following air raids on Iraq. "The strikes are unacceptable.

They have to be stopped immediately," Chief Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Yakushkin cited the Russian president as saying. Russia has placed its military on heightened alert following the launch late Wednesday of a U.S.-British missile assault against Iraq. It has further threatened to tear up all cooperation agreements with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization unless an instant end is put to the air strikes.

After withdrawing its ambassador from Washington, Russia Friday withdrew its ambassador from London, underlining its opposition to U.S.-British air strikes on Iraq which waning Russian diplomatic influence proved unable to prevent. The Moscow media meanwhile saw the air attacks as a product of President Bill Clinton's sexual intrigues and attempts to conceal them. "The children of Iraq are suffering because of Clinton's love," announced the authoritative business daily Kommersant in a headline over a photograph of a Iraqi child crying in the arms of its mother in hospital.

China again expressed "deep regret" Friday over a second combined air strike against Iraq by the United States and Britain, but stopped short of following Russia in recalling its envoy from Washington. "China urges the U.S. and Britain to immediately cease these military actions to prevent the conflict from escalating with the loss of even more lives of civilians," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhu Bangzao as saying.

A ministry spokesman had earlier told AFP that China was unlikely to recall its ambassador to the United States, despite Russia's move to withdraw its envoy from Washington to protest the U.S.-led air strikes on Iraq. After the first military strike Thursday, President Jiang Zemin urged the United States and Britain to stop their action against Iraq and to seek a settlement of the situation through dialogue, Zinhua said.

Jiang had called on U.S. President Bill Clinton to cease the attacks which were carried out without authorization by the UN Security Council. NATO and Russian officials will continue their political and military cooperation despite a rift over U.S.-led air strikes on Iraq, Russian and Western diplomats said here Friday. North Korea Friday condemned the U.S. and British missile attacks on Iraq, saying the bombing represented a serious threat to stability and peace in Iraq and the Middle East. A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said the attack by the United States and Britain "cannot be justified in any case," according to Pyongyang's official mouthpiece, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), monitored here.

Russia's Lower House of Parliament, the State Duma, will Friday debate a proposed unilateral lifting by Russia of sanctions against Iraq following the U.S.-British air strikes. The Duma voted to add the issue to Friday's agenda by a vote of 279 for and 28 against, with one abstention. President Seyed Mohammad Khatami here chaired the emergency session of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) to review the onslaught of U.S. military attacks against Iraq. THE SNSC condemned the U.S aggression and called on the UN Security Council to use all its power and authority within the framework of its responsibility to immediately stop unilateral U.S. attacks against a member state of the UN and the 55-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). The effects of the U.S. military attacks on the innocent people of Iraq and the issue of regional security were reviewed.

Other necessary decisions were made at the session. The Iranian Supreme National Security Council in its emergency session also called on Baghdad to respect UN Security Council resolutions. The SNSC termed the missile strike on Khorramshahr as a `violation of Iran's territorial integrity', which it severely condemned. Further it asked the United States to fully observe its international obligations and strongly refrain from committing `such blunders' again.

Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi in separate telephone conversations here Thursday exchanged views with UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan and OIC Secretary General Ezeddine Laraki on ways to find a peaceful solution to the Iraqi crisis. Kharrazi expressed deep concern over the military attacks against Iraq by the joint forces of the United States and the United Kingdom. The Iranian foreign minister then told Annan and Laraki that the chairman of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) President Seyed Mohammad Khatami is eager to see the world community and the 55-nation Islamic organization active in finding a peaceful solution to the current crisis.

Arab governments and newspapers fiercely criticized the U.S. air strikes on Baghdad on Friday as security officials readied for expected anti-American demonstrations outside mosques after the weekly Muslim prayers. Throughout the Arab world, the message was that the unleashing of missiles at the heart of Baghdad would do more harm to the Iraqi people than to President Saddam Hussein. Syrian Parliament Speaker Abdul-Kader Qaddoura said the U.S. strikes ``increased the suffering and pain'' of Iraq's people, ``particularly its children and civilians.'' Sheik Zayed Bin Sultan al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates, expressed his ``great concern over the military action against Iraq and its repercussions on the Iraqi people,'' the emirates news agency reported late Thursday. In Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, security officials readied for protests over the U.S. and British attacks outside mosques or American embassies.

On Thursday, protests against the attacks erupted in Cairo, the Lebanese capital Beirut and the Gaza Strip. The Egyptian-based Arab League called an emergency meeting Sunday to discuss the situation in Iraq. Its secretary-general, Esmat Abdel-Meguid, on Thursday blamed the attack on last week's report by UN chief weapons inspector Richard Butler, saying he ``intended to provoke Iraq and not be neutral'' in assessing Iraq's weapons programs.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Mussa called Friday for the UN Security Council to halt the U.S.-British military strikes against Iraq. "The Security Council must work to end the escalation of the situation," Mussa said on state-run voice of the Arabs radio. Thousands of Jordanians gathered Friday after weekly midday prayers at mosques across the country for peaceful rallies to protest a second night of U.S. and British missile strikes on Iraq. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov proposed a steps to end the Iraqi crisis in a telephone conversation Friday with British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook. Moscow is proposing "an immediate end to military actions, an analysis of the developed situation during a session of the UN Security Council, and a re-evaluation of Iraq's cooperation with Security Council resolutions," a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said.

The only solution to the conflict in Iraq is President Saddam Hussein's ouster, a German minister attached to the Foreign Ministry told the daily Die Welt on Friday. "Failing that, it will not work and there will be no hope," said Guenter Verheugen. Iran Thursday lodged a strong protest with Switzerland, which looks after U.S. interests in Iran, and Britain following the missile strike on Khorramshahr Thursday morning.

The Swiss ambassador and the British charge d'affaires were summoned to the Foreign Ministry where the director general of the America and West Europe Desk told them that Iran holds the U.S. and Britain responsible for the damage incurred as a result of the missile strike. Iran also expressed deep concern over the safety and security of Iranian pilgrims and the staff of Iranian establishments in Iraq. In a telephone call late Wednesday Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi of Iran discussed latest situation in UN-Iraq crisis with his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Bin Jasim bin Jaber ath-Thani.

During the conversation, which took place immediately after the return of Qatari minister from Saudi Arabia after consultations with Saudi officials, the two sides rejected any unilateral military operation against Iraq. Iran on Thursday condemned the use of force against Iraq and called for immediate stop to the U.S.-Britain air strikes against that country. Such attacks will only worsen the hardships of the Iraqi nation and lead to further instability of the region, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi, calling the strikes as a serious threat to the regional security.

The Pentagon in Washington Friday denied all knowledge of a stray Cruise missile hitting the Iranian port city of Kharramshahr. A spokesman told IRNA that he was "unaware" and "unfamiliar" about the missile that damaged houses, but caused no injuries at the start of joint U.S.-British air attacks against Iraq Wednesday night. He conceded that he had "heard reports" about the incident, but insisted that the Pentagon knew "nothing" about Khorramshahr being hit.

The U.S. denial follows Britain also trying to wash its hands over the stray missile with a virtual new blackout about the incident in the UK press. A spokesman for the Defense Ministry in London told that it should "really speak to the Americans." He said it was "not for us to comment" on what was reportedly a U.S. missile. Asked on Thursday morning about the stray missile, Defense Secretary George Robertson also told reporters that he had no information on the incident.

The British Foreign Office in London also did not want to comment on Khorramshahr being hit, saying it was an "operational matter" handled by the Defense Ministry. Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi in a telephone conversation here Friday with his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov exchanged views on current developments in Iraq. Condemning the unilateral strikes against Iraq, Kharrazi said that such aggressive measures cannot be explained and that such measures necessiated the ratifications of the UN Security Council. Kharrazi underlined that Iran's president and the chairman of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) Seyed Mohammad Khatami was eager to see the 55-nation Islamic conference play an active part in this regard.

Iran's foreign minister then called for immediate stop of strikes against Iraq. He added that the Iraqi government also needed to bolster its cooperation with the UN Security Council and that Iraq needed to refrain from giving the U.S excuse. The Russian minister of foreign affairs on his part condemned the unilateral U.S-British attacks against Iraq, saying that such measures should be compatible with the approvals of the UN Security Council. Ivanov underlined that the UN Security Council needed to assume an active role to end the crisis.

He also expressed his desire to see the Organization of Islamic Conference find a way in resolving the Iraqi crisis.