UNITED NATIONS, Dec 4: The 185-nation United Nations (UN) General Assembly agreed to postpone a vote on upgrading the status of the Palestine mission to the UN. UN General Assembly president Hennadiy Udovenko announced yesterday during a debate on eight middle east resolutions, including one on upgrading the observer status of the Palestinian mission, the postponement until next Tuesday of all the votes.

The 15 European Union states had put forward an amendment seeking to delay a decision by asking UN secretary general Kofi Annan to produce a report on the issue. European delegates said that if approved as drafted, the draft resolution providing for the Palestinian upgrade would have given the Palestine mission a status which is not in the UN charter.

One European diplomat said that ``the Palestinians would have a status superior to that of the Vatican and Switzerland,'' if the resolution was adopted.

Udovenko's spokesman Alexander Taukatch said that the decision was taken after consultations with various regional groups, as ``all kinds of problems'' had emerged. Udovenko had to call for order several times during the afternoon session, to silence groups of delegates who were negotiating in the hall as speakers addressed the motions.

UN diplomats said that by postponing the vote until Tuesday, the Palestinians would have more time to campaign in support of the motion. The resolution tabled yesterday provided for the Palestine delegation to have ``the same rights and privileges'' as member states, except for voting rights and the possibility of fielding candidates for UN posts.

Palestine's observer to the UN, Nasseral-Kidwa, says that the resolution would give his mission a ``super-observer'' status.

On Monday, when the annual General Assembly debate on the middle east resolutions opened, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat called for ``full participation'' by Palestine at the UN.

Meanwhile, in Washington, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is trying to get Israeli-Palestinian talks back on track after an eight-month log-jam that has hurt US credibility in the Arab world. Albright will sit down again with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian authority President Yasser Arafat, tomorrow in Paris and on Saturday in Geneva, respectively.

Netanyahu will be touring Europe to defend his plan for a limited, strictly conditioned withdrawal in the West Bank, which has met with considerable scepticism. But the US-Israeli chat could run quite short if Netanyahu simply presents a broad outline of his plan to Albright, as he suggested yesterday.

According to Army Radio, the plan would call for Israel to pull out in one operation from eight per cent of West Bank territory, of which Israel now occupies 70 per cent. The rest is divided between area under total Palestinian control (three per cent) and area under partial Palestinian control (27 per cent). The figures are a far cry from Palestinian calls for control of 90 per cent of the territory.

Netanyahu also has packed his plan with conditions which the Palestinians do not accept, such as requiring them to renounce any additional transfer of territory before the end of the transitional autonomy period, expected in 1999.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.