Palestinians defy US with UN bid

The Palestinians will ask for full membership of the the United Nations next week - in defiance of Washington's threat to veto the statehood bid.

The statement by Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki put an end to speculation that they might avoid a showdown with the United States by side-stepping the Security Council and going directly to the UN General Assembly to seek a lesser status of a non-member observer.

The US does not wield veto power in the General Assembly, and a Palestinian bid there would be expected to win majority approval.

The Palestinians are still likely to end up at the General Assembly with scaled-back ambitions if the US exercises its veto power in the Security Council as expected.

The US has been on a furious diplomatic offensive to try to keep the Palestinians from going to the UN in their statehood quest, saying negotiations are the only way to produce a Palestinian state.

Israel also opposes the UN move, which the Palestinians launched after concluding that Israeli-Palestinian negotiations - stalled for nearly three years - were not going to produce any breakthroughs at this time.

Mr Malki said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would present the statehood bid to UN chief Ban Ki-moon after delivering his speech before the General Assembly on September 23.

Mr Malki spoke to foreign journalists in Ramallah, the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority.

His comments came as US and other international envoys were shuttling back and forth between Jerusalem and Ramallah in an effort to avert a diplomatic crisis over the Palestinians' UN bid.