Displaying a populist touch, Erdoğan stopped as he left the Arab League headquarters in Cairo where he had been speaking and shook the hands of demonstrators demanding change in Syria, whose military is trying to crush an uprising.
"LET'S RAISE THE PALESTINIAN FLAG"
"It's time to raise the Palestinian flag at the United Nations," he told the Arab ministers. "Let's raise the Palestinian flag and let that flag be the symbol of peace and justice in the Middle East."
Palestinians will bid for full membership of the United Nations later this month, a move opposed by the United States, which has a veto. Arab states endorsed it at the Cairo meeting, where Erdoğan accused the United States of bias.
"The United States should reconsider the statement it made in relation to the bid Palestine is going to make to the United Nations. This prejudice is not befitting to the foreign policy of a country like the United States," he said.
Erdoğan said Turkey offered help to Arab nations facing turmoil but, in an apparent reference to Syria, he said some had turned down the offer. "However, we continue to insist they meet their people's demands."
Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby introduced the Turkish prime minister saying: "All the Arab peoples appreciate what you are doing. We consider that there is a strong friendly state who is always standing on the side of justice."
Outside the League, Syrian protester Samer Zaher, 30, said: "Erdoğan has turned into an Arab hero ... We have not found a leader as powerful as him addressing (Syrian President Bashar al-Assad) and asking him to quit."
Erdoğan later addressed the Syrian issue directly, saying in a public speech before several thousand Cairenes that he like most Syrians had lost faith in Assad.
"As civilian deaths increase in Syria we see that reforms have not materialized and they did not speak honestly. It is not possible to believe this. And the Syrian people do not believe in Assad, nor do I. We also do not believe him," he said in the grounds of the Cairo opera house.
WINNING OVER ARABS
While winning over ordinary Arabs, particularly with non-Arab Turkey's tough line toward Israel, Erdoğan's growing popularity and clout could be a headache for more cautious Arab leaders who could see their own influence overshadowed.
Egypt has traditionally seen itself as the leading diplomatic player in the Arab region. But its position has been eroded by wealthy Gulf countries, such as Qatar, and lately overshadowed by Turkey, with its fast-expanding economy.
Erdoğan met Egypt's Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who heads the military council that took over after Mubarak was ousted by mass street demonstrations in February.
Egypt's generals have faced popular criticism for not taking a firmer line with Israel after it shot dead five Egyptian border guards in repelling cross-border raiders it said were Palestinian militants. Cairo said it would expel Israel's ambassador but did not follow through with the threat.
Protesters attacked Israel's embassy in Cairo last week, prompting the ambassador to fly home and an embarrassed Egyptian government to affirm to Washington, its major aid donor, that it remained committed to a 1979 peace treaty with Israel.