US veto of a Palestinian bid to join the UN would be tantamount to "terrorism"

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinian leadership rejected upgrading Palestine to observer status at the UN and would demand full membership, the official news agency Wafa reported.

Speaking in Beirut, Abbas said 122 countries supported an independent Palestinian state on 1967 borders, adding that the number could increase. Palestine also had the support of nine of the 15 UN Security Council members, the president said.

Abbas said the Arab League had discussed allowing armed resistance to Israel's occupation if the bid for full membership of the UN failed, and that some countries supported the idea.

But the president said Palestinians did not want armed resistance "unless you all take a decision to launch war." He added: "I cannot fire one single bullet at Israel because all I have is a policeman with a Kalashnikov and minimum ammunition."

Jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti has warned that a US veto of a Palestinian bid to join the UN would be tantamount to "terrorism" and would wreck ties with Washington.

In an interview conducted through several of his lawyers, Barghouti, an influential leader with widespread support among the Palestinian public, told AFP he was fully supportive of the bid to seek UN membership.