Calls for an Arab boycott of U.S. products appear more of an outburst of anger over perceived American bias against Palestinians than an organised campaign, analysts said yesterday.

Some Arab leaders have criticised the United States for failing to stop what they see as Israel's "war crimes" against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.At least 281 people, most of them Arabs, have been killed in two months of Palestinian-Israeli clashes.

But governments have ignored growing calls by Muslim scholars and opposition groups to boycott U.S. goods, allowing people instead to vent frustrations in street protests and leaflets denouncing Israel and its guardian ally, the United States.

"Each dollar spent to buy an American product is transformed into a bullet to kill our brothers in Palestine," read one of the leaflets distributed in mosques, universities and schools in Arab countries, some of them key U.S. allies.

In Egypt, opposition newspapers have published a blacklist of dozens of U.S. firms, including Pepsi Cola, because it claimed "Pepsi" stood for "Pay Every Penny to Save Israel".

Professional associations and intellectuals in Jordan and Lebanon, both with large Palestinian communities, have said they would issue a blacklist of names of U.S. companies. U.S. diplomats and analysts said a boycott campaign would be counterproductive and might further antagonise Americans and deprive the region of badly needed investments.

"We have to win the influential world public opinion, including American public opinion ... despite the clear bias towards Israel," said Anwar Gergash, a professor of political science in the United Arab Emirates.

"Emotional calls to boycott American products are no more than desperate acts that hurt us," he said. "Leaving the American arena empty for Israel represents a return to an old policy tried repeatedly by the Arabs with catastrophic results."

Prominent Egyptian scholar and Muslim cleric Sheikh Youssef Al Qaradawi kicked off boycott calls last month by issuing a fatwa (religious ruling) that it was forbidden to consume U.S. products while Palestinians were being killed by U.S.-made weapons.

Executives at some franchises of U.S. firms said sales had dropped in the early weeks of the Palestinians' "Al Aqsa Intifada", but recovered later. "The drop is now small, maybe five per cent or so," said one executive from Kuwait Food Co (Americana) that holds franchises for fast food firms in the region like Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), Pizza Hut, Hardee's and Baskin Robbins.

"People also realise that these outlets employ thousands of Egyptians who support thousands of families and a boycott could lead to loss of jobs," he told Reuters.

In Saudi Arabia, the licence holders of U.S. fast food giant McDonald Corp said yesterday they had launched a campaign to raise money for Palestinian children's hospitals - an apparent bid to counter the boycott calls.

The anti-U.S. media campaign appears unrelenting.

Many popular television live chats, newspaper commentaries and cartoons portray the White House as dominated by "Zionists," referring to the Jewish origin of some U.S. officials, such as Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Middle East special envoy Dennis Ross.

Some have called on Arabs who control the lion's share of the world's total energy reserves to use their potent oil weapon to punish the United States for the killing of more than 280 Palestinians in two months of clashes with Israeli troops.

But U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson told Reuters after a meeting in Saudi Arabia last week that Middle East producers have given guarantees that they would not consider another 1970s-style oil embargo.

U.S. diplomats warned that a flight of American investments would mean the loss of thousands of jobs in the region. "The United States is one of the major foreign investors in Egypt. U.S. investment in Egypt creates employment for thousands of Egyptians, pays taxes to the Egyptian treasury and contributes to the economic growth of the country," one diplomat based in Cairo said.

"Increasing U.S. investment is a stated goal of both the United States and Egypt. We therefore oppose anything that would prevent or hinder greater U.S. investment in Egypt," he added.