PLO central council member Nabil Amr said Tuesday that the Palestinian request for full UN membership is not a "bid" but rather a diplomatic activity

PLO central council member Nabil Amr said Tuesday that the Palestinian request for full UN membership is not a "bid" but rather a diplomatic activity.

The former ambassador to Egypt expressed reservations over the plan to seek state membership of the United Nations at the annual General Assembly meeting in New York, which opens on Monday.

Speaking at a seminar in Hebron, Amr said vows by the US President Barack Obama and the Middle East Quartet to establish a Palestinian state were nothing more than promises.

The Palestinian leadership magnified these promises into a bid that must be delivered, he said. But states are not established on the basis of legal arguments and statements alone, he added.

The US will use its veto in a vote at the Security Council and Europe will express reservations, but regardless of the outcome of the vote there will be no changes on the ground, Amr said.

The international community agreed that the Palestinian people had the right to their own state 25 years ago, he added.

Asked about the next phase for Palestinians, he said the PLO should give itself a period of one year to write letters to stakeholders in the political process calling on them to commit to previous agreements, end settlement activity and confront Israeli violations.

Meanwhile an internal review should be conducted and Hamas must be given an opportunity "to participate seriously" in the process, Amr said.

All decisions must be taken unanimously by all factions, he added.

Regarding the PLO, Amr said members of the PLO executive committee "knew nothing" about what the Palestinian leadership was doing and had "no real, effective role."

He suggested that some committee members should enter the Guinness Book of World Records for staying in their posts for 40 years.