The United States blocked a UN Security Council statement drafted by Arab nations and aimed at putting pressure on Israel to stop military strikes on Palestinian targets.

The US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, said on Thursday that the draft, even after three days of intense negotiations, "was disproportionately critical of Israel, and unfairly so, and needlessly so".

The Palestinian UN observer, Riyad Mansour, accused Washington of "shielding and protecting Israeli activities and aggression against the Palestinian people".

"It was obvious that many of their concerns were accommodated, but yet they kept coming back and coming back for additional things. It was obvious they did not want the Security Council to have a position," Mansour said.

Washington does not have formal veto power when it comes to council statements, but it was able to block the draft because council rules require that statements be supported by all 15 members.

Mansour predicted more than 150 UN, member-nations would address the meeting, to demonstrate that the overwhelming majority of UN members were "on the side of justice and international law".

The draft statement, after three days of revisions directed at toning it down, expressed concern about rocket attacks on Israel launched from Gaza and the escalation of Israeli shelling of Gaza, which Israel says was meant to end those attacks.

It urged both sides to comply with international law and to refrain from steps that could escalate the situation.

Israel has increased deadly air strikes and shelling of Gaza in what it says is a response to militants firing rockets into Israel. The attacks have intensified since the resistance group Hamas took over governing the Palestinian territories after winning a January election.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinians carry the body of four-year-old Hadeel Ghabeen during her funeral in the northern Gaza April 11, 2006 after an Israeli artillery shell hit her family house. (Reuters)