Palestinian diplomats and their allies on the Security Council agreed Monday to postpone a vote on a proposed UN military observer force until the end of the week, diplomats said.
"It was agreed that the vote will not take place today," the council president and Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Sergei Lavrov, told reporters.
On Friday, Namibia had submitted a draft resolution to the council on behalf of the non-aligned movement (NAM) which would establish a UN force of military and police observers in Israeli-occupied territories.
The force is a key Palestinian demand, but the Namibian text diluted an earlier NAM draft containing proposals made by the Palestinian observer to the UN, Nasser al-Kidwa.
Diplomats who attended Monday's consultations said Namibia's ambassador, Martin Andjaba, had hinted that he was ready to accept further amendments.
"We are prepared to postpone action and start working on a text to come up with consensus language," he said.
The diplomats said the French ambassador, Jean-David Levitte, had urged the six NAM members with seats on the council to await the outcome of a visit to the Middle East by French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine.
Vedrine was mandated by EU heads of state and government at their summit in Nice, France, this weekend to try to persuade Israel to accept a UN mission to the Palestinian territories.
A total of 321 people, the great majority of them stone-throwing Palestinians, have been killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers since late September.
Vedrine is also due to visit Egypt, which hosted a summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in mid-October with the aim of halting the violence.
Israel has repeatedly dismissed Al-Kidwa's original proposals and United States has threatened to veto any resolution that is unacceptable to Israel.
Diplomats said a senior US diplomat, Nancy Soderberg, thanked members of the NAM caucus for their "flexibility" in agreeing to postpone a vote, and said this was "the only possible constructive way forward".
They quoted Andjaba as replying: "Our flexibility is not open-ended".
The revised NAM draft contained amendments suggested by Britain and France, in particular a request that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan "consult both sides on the composition, modalities of deployment and functioning" of the proposed force -- UNITED NATIONS (AFP)
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