United Nations: A fresh confrontation is brewing between the US and Palestine in the Security Council with Palestinians warning Washington that its veto of their resolution asking Israel to stop building security barrier could doom the Middle East peace process.

Arabs have called for a vote on October 14 on the resolution moved by Syria declaring the barrier as "illegal" and asking Tel Aviv to reverse the process and American UN Ambassador John Negroponte has threatened to veto the draft.

Calling the draft one-sided, he said it would not serve any useful purpose "even though we also recognise that we have our own reservations about Israeli actions with respect to the construction of the wall".

Reiterating the now well-known position of the US, Negroponte said to win Amerian backing, a resolution would have to also denounce by name the militant groups that claim responsibility of suicide bombings in Israel.

Negroponte asked both sides to avoid actions that would escalate the situation and said, "We don't think that building of this fence is consistent with the vision of a Palestinian state living side by side at peace with its neighbour Israel."

But Palestinian envoy Nasser al-Kidwa said allowing Israel to continue to build the barrier would mean a perpetual conflict and an end of the two-state solution.

Diplomats said that the resolution had broad support in the Council during the closed-door consultations held on October 10 and members supported the view that it is "illegal".

Syria, the only Arab member of the 15-member Council, moved the resolution declaring building of the fence "illegal" after the United States successfully stalled its attempts to get a resolution through the Council which would have denounced Israeli air strikes on targets near Damascus.

PTI