France and Britain called Friday for Europe to send a strong message on the escalating crisis in Egypt, urging the EU to review its relations with Cairo.

The French presidency said in a statement that after talks by telephone, President Francois Hollande and Prime Minister David Cameron agreed "on the seriousness of the violence of recent days and on the need for a strong European message."

The Iranian foreign minister on Friday urged the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to intervene in member state Egypt to contain a deadly crackdown on Islamists, state television reported.

Mohammad Javad Zarif said a police crackdown on two protests camps set up by supporters of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi that killed nearly 600 people was a "massacre", it said.

A senior U.N. official will visit Cairo next week to discuss the violent political crisis unfolding in Egypt, the United Nations said Friday.

U.N. under secretary general for political affairs Jeffrey Feltman hopes to meet with Egyptian authorities.

Saudi King Abdullah pledged his country's support to Egypt's fight on "terrorism," saying it was the military-backed government's "legitimate right," in a speech aired on official al-Ekhbariya television Friday.

Saudi Arabia "has stood and stands with its Egyptian brothers against terrorism, deviance and sedition, and against those who try to interfere in Egypt's internal affairs... and its legitimate rights in deterring those tampering with and misleading" its people, he said.

Egypt's cabinet on Friday said it is confronting a "malicious terrorist plot" by the Muslim Brotherhood as dozens were killed in nationwide clashes with police.

"The cabinet affirms that the government, the armed forces, the police and the great people of Egypt are united in confronting the malicious terrorist plot by the Muslim Brotherhood," it said in a statement.

Germany will review its relations with violence-torn Egypt, the office of Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a statement following her talk Friday with French President Francois Hollande.

"The chancellor explained that the government, in view of the latest developments, would review its relations with Egypt," the chancellery statement said.

French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Friday for urgent European consultations on the escalating crisis in Egypt.

The two leaders discussed the crisis by telephone and "called for an immediate end to the violence" and for the foreign ministers of the EU to meet quickly next week over the deteriorating situation in Egypt, the French presidency said in a statement.

Hundreds of Hamas supporters rallied on Friday at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound in protest against Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief who ousted Egypt's Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

Some 600 people affiliated with the Palestinian Islamist movement that rules the Gaza Strip held the demonstration after Friday prayers, an Agence France Presse correspondent said.

Thousands of Islamists protested Friday across Egypt, sparking violence that killed at least 70 people and turned parts of Cairo into battlefields after police authorized the use of live ammunition.

The clashes came two days after 578 people were killed in Egypt as police cleared two Cairo protest camps set up by loyalists of ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, in the country's bloodiest day in decades.

Britain on Friday urged tourists visiting the Red Sea resort of Hurghada to stay in their hotels following a warning by Egyptian police in the wake of violent clashes this week.

Hurghada and other resorts such as Sharm el-Sheikh are excluded from the Foreign Office's advice against all but essential travel to Egypt, as they are deemed far removed from the political unrest centered around Cairo.