BANGKOK — Calling a border confrontation with Thailand “an imminent state of war,” Cambodia asked the United Nations and its Southeast Asian neighbors to intervene Tuesday as hundreds of soldiers faced each other for the eighth day on the grounds of a disputed temple.

A bilateral meeting on Monday failed to resolve the standoff, and troops from both sides remained camped at the ancient Hindu temple, Preah Vihear, that perches on a cliff dividing the two nations.

“In the face of this imminent state of war, this very serious threat to our independence and territorial integrity, we have an obligation to resort to the United Nations Security Council,” said Foreign Minister Hor Namhong of Cambodia. He said the Cambodian ambassador to the United Nations submitted the request on Monday for an emergency Security Council meeting to find a solution based on international law.

The foreign minister spoke at a meeting in Singapore of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and asked his colleagues in the regional grouping to try to help find a solution to the confrontation.

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“Thai troops with artillery and tanks are building up along the border, constituting a very serious threat not only to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Cambodia, but also to peace and stability in the region,” he said in a letter addressed to George Yeo, the foreign minister of Singapore, which is leading the regional meeting.

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A Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman, Tharit Charungvat, said that Cambodia was within its rights to appeal to the Security Council, but that “we believe that bilateral options are still not exhausted.”