United Nations: Israeli and Palestinian envoys clashed in the Security Council when it met to discuss killing of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi with Palestinian demanding "bold and courageous" action against Tel Aviv and Israel questioning the need for the meeting and describing Rantisi as "trader in death".

The meeting saw exchanges between the two on expected lines as member States restated their known positions. The US envoy in most part repeated the statement issued by the White House but Muslims countries were most strident in their condemnation of Israel.

Less than a month ago, the Council had held a similar debate after Israel assassinated spiritual leader of Hamas Sheikh Ahmed Yassin whom Rantisi had succeeded.

Urging the Council to take strong action, Palestinian envoy Nasser al-Kidwa said its failure to condemn the "extra judicial" execution of Sheikh Yassin had further emboldened Israel to continue carrying out such illegal actions with impunity.

Israel, he told the 15-member Council, continues to behave as a State above law without concern for reproachment and punishment or consequences of its actions as the Council had failed to adopt a resolution condemning the killing of Yassin.

The Council could not adopt resolution as the United States vetoed it, arguing that it was one sided as it did not condemn by name Palestinian organisations taking responsibility for suicide bomb attacks against Israel.

Kidwa said that any parallel drawn between Israel's actions against the Palestinians and the war against global terrorism is "inappropriate" and "completely erroneous".

Israel's constant attempts to draw such parallels and to exploit the international fight against terrorism must be rejected, he told the Council.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's announced unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, he said, is an attempt to confer legitimacy on some of Israel's illegal settlements, to negate the rights of Palestine refugees and to dilute international opposition to the catastrophic expansionist separation wall.

The proposal fell far short of any real withdrawal, keeping control of international borders, airspace and water in the hands of the occupier and maintaining the so-called "right" to military attacks against Gaza, he added.

Questioning Kidwa's statements, Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman said that it was regrettable that the Council had been "compelled" to convene again, not to condemn the murder of innocent civilians by organizations such as Hamas, but to denounce the demise of a key architect of those massacres.

Just hours before the "targeted counter-terrorist operation" against Rantisi, "a trader in death", the organization which he had headed had claimed responsibility, together with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, for yet another suicide attack at the Erez Crossing, killing a guard and injuring others, he told the Council.

Those acts of terror should be the focus of the Council's specific attention, not the acts of "self-defence" necessary to prevent them, he said.