Several Arab states have cancelled planned New Year celebrations in solidarity with Palestinians in the Islamist-run Gaza Strip who suffered a fifth straight day of Israeli bombardment yesterday.

Egypt, Jordan and Dubai have all cancelled festivities including concerts by renowned Arab singers.

As the Arab League met in the Egyptian capital, the cultural message was clear.

Egypt's state-owned Al-Ahram daily reported that official events planned for New Year's Eve had been shelved.

"In solidarity with the painful events in the Palestinian territories and the massacres which Gazans are faced with... the ministries of culture and information have decided to cancel New Year's festivities," it said.

In the Gulf tourism hub of Dubai, the emirate's ruler Sheikh Mohammad bin Hashed al-Maktoum decreed that several planned concerts should not go ahead.

He gave the order "as a sign of solidarity with the brotherly Palestinian people and because of the death and destruction perpetrated on the Gaza Strip by the Israeli war machine," his office said.

In Jordan several five-star hotels and restaurants in the capital Amman and other cities including the ancient Nabataean city of Petra and the Red Sea port of Aqaba, cancelled New Year celebrations.

"The decision to cancel the celebrations has been taken in solidarity with our people in Gaza," Michel Nazzal, head of the Jordanian Hotel Association, said in a statement