British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond rejected international military action in Libya on Thursday and said the crisis-hit country needed a political solution.

"We don't believe that military action can solve the problem in Libya," Hammond said at a joint press conference in Algiers with Algerian counterpart Ramtane Lamamra.

Gulf Arab states threw their support behind Qatar Thursday in a row with Egypt, which accused Doha of backing "terrorism" during heated discussions about Cairo's air strikes on jihadists in Libya.

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) secretary general Abdullatif al-Zayani said in a statement he "rejects accusations by Egypt's permanent envoy at the Arab League that Qatar supports terrorism".

Qatar recalled its ambassador to Egypt Thursday following a row over Cairo's air strikes on jihadist targets in Libya, threatening fresh divisions among Western-allied Arab states.

A foreign ministry official said Doha was recalling its envoy for consultation after Egypt's delegate to the Arab League accused Qatar of supporting "terrorism", during discussions on Libya.

Arab states will ask the U.N. Security Council Wednesday to lift an arms embargo on weapons sales to Libya's internationally recognized government for its fight against jihadists, Egypt said.

Cairo, which is pushing for tough measures against the Islamic State group in Libya after jihadists there beheaded Egyptian Christians, had called for international military action against IS but dropped the request after Western hesitation.

An Egyptian court has sentenced a student to one year in jail for insulting Islam and promoting atheism on a Facebook page, his lawyer and judicial sources said Wednesday.

It is the second such ruling in Egypt since January when another 21-year-old was jailed for three years for declaring on Facebook that he is an atheist.

A street sweeper was killed Wednesday when a small bomb hidden in a pile of rubbish exploded in a suburb of the Egyptian capital, a security official said.

Bomb attacks have become increasingly frequent in Egypt, particularly in the restive Sinai Peninsula, since the army toppled Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

Egypt called Wednesday on the United Nations to lift an arms embargo on Libya as Cairo pushes for greater international efforts to combat jihadists in its war-torn neighbor.

In talks in New York ahead of a U.N. Security Council meeting, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told fellow diplomats that Libya's internationally recognized government needed to be better armed to take on Islamist militias who have seized large parts of the country.

An Egyptian judicial source said Tuesday that former president Mohamed Morsi will not face a new trial for incitement to murder, contradicting a claim from the prosecution.

Earlier, a source in the prosecutors office said Morsi and 198 Islamist leaders and supporters would face a military trial on February 23 over deadly protests that followed his overthrow.

The United Nations human rights chief on Tuesday condemned the mass beheadings of Egyptian Christians in Libya and urged Libyans to fight Islamist extremists in their country.

"The brutal murder of these men, and the ghastly attempt to justify and glorify it in a video, should be roundly condemned by everyone, in particular by the people of Libya who should resist the urgings of takfiri (Sunni extremist) groups," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement.

Egypt called Tuesday for U.N.-backed international intervention in Libya after launching air strikes on Islamic State targets in retaliation for the jihadist group's beheading of Egyptian Christians.

The matter will be taken up by the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday after a request by Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, diplomats said.