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.