UNSC REJECTS RESOLUTION ON PALESTINIAN STATE

The resolution had needed a minimum of nine votes in support for adoption [AP]

The UN Security Council has rejected a Palestinian resolution calling for peace with Israel within a year and an end to Israel's occupation by 2017.

The resolution failed to muster the minimum nine "yes" votes required in the council for adoption.

It received eight "yes" votes, two "no" votes from the United States and Australia, and five abstentions, from the UK, Lithuania, Nigeria, South Korea and Rwanda.

The US, Israel's closest ally, had reiterated its opposition to the draft resolution earlier on Tuesday.

Washington said it could not support the draft because it was not constructive and failed to address Israel's security needs.

The resolution had called for occupied East Jerusalem to be the capital of Palestine, an end to Israeli settlement building and settling the issue of Palestinian prisoner releases.

The resolution also called for negotiations to be based on territorial lines that existed before Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in 1967.

Israel had said the Security Council vote, following the collapse in April of US-brokered talks on Palestinian statehood, would deepen the conflict.

The Palestinians, frustrated by the lack of progress on peace talks, have sought to internationalise the issue by seeking UN membership and recognition of statehood via membership in international organisations.

Several European parliaments have adopted non-binding motions calling for recognition of Palestine.

The Palestinians had warned that if the bid to win support for a UN resolution failed they were prepared to join the International Criminal Court to file suits against Israel.