ISLAMABAD--Israel's deadly assault on Gaza drew cries of alarm across Asia Sunday, with Pakistan and China calling for it to end and angry Muslims in Indonesia urging war against the Jewish state.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi called for an immediate end to the Israeli air and ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.

"There should be an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. We should stop the loss of life and property there," Qureshi told a televised news conference. "What has happened is unjustified."

The offensive, launched more than a week ago by Israel in response to a wave of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip run by the Hamas Islamist movement, has killed at least 485 people so far, according to Gaza medics.

Rocket fire from Gaza over the same period has killed four Israelis.

In New York, the UN Security Council failed to agree on a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire after hours of closed-door talks.

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso warned that Israel's ground offensive into Gaza would only worsen the situation.

"I have asked both of them to show self-restraint," Aso told a news conference, referring to Israel and Hamas.

"It was difficult for them to sort things out to begin with. I'm very worried that the dispatch of ground troops will make the situation much worse," he said.

China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, for the third time called for the armed conflict to end.

"China is seriously concerned with the escalating situation," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement.

"We strongly call on the concerned sides to immediately cease military activities and armed conflict and prevent more civilian casualties."

Thousands of Islamists in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, rallied across the country to condemn the strikes and called on the government to send troops to fight Israeli forces.

Around 3,000 members of the Islamist Hizbut Tahrir movement filled the streets of central Jakarta in a peaceful march, carrying banners denouncing the Jewish state as a "terrorist" force.

"Indonesia's military must go to war against Israel, not just as peacekeepers. We ask the government to send troops there, not just medicine," Farid Wadjdi, the movement's local head, was quoted as saying by news website Detikcom.

Protesters marched over an Israeli flag painted onto the ground in the city of Makassar in South Sulawesi province, rubbing their feet into the image as a sign of disrespect, television station MetroTV said.

Protesters had also rallied in several cities across Pakistan on Friday against the Israel's operation, with some burning Israeli flags, and calling for jihad, or holy war, against the Jewish state.

Singapore's foreign ministry said in a statement that Israel's invasion was "extremely disturbing" and "can only exacerbate the already grave humanitarian situation," reiterating a call for restraint on all sides.

"We hope that an immediate ceasefire can be agreed so that urgent humanitarian concerns can be addressed," the statement said.

In Australia, some 2,000 people marched through Sydney in protest at Israel's attacks and urged their government to condemn the invasion of the battered Palestinian enclave.