The United States handed the UN Security Council a draft resolution today that hails progress made in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks but calls for an "intensification" of efforts to secure a deal.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad said the 15-nation council would vote on the resolution on Tuesday at a meeting which US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and other foreign ministers are expected to attend.
If approved, it will be the Security Council's first resolution on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians since November 2003, when it endorsed the Middle East "road map" peace plan for eventual Palestinian statehood.
Mr Khalilzad told reporters the resolution endorsed the goals of peace talks launched in November 2007 by the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush in Annapolis, Maryland.
The Bush administration had wanted an agreement on Palestinian statehood by the end of this year but all sides now say that will not happen. Mr Bush leaves office on January 20th, when Barack Obama will become US president.
"We believe it's very important at this time to recognize the progress that has been made," Mr Khalilzad said.
It was crucial for the push for a two-state solution "to be sustained and for the council to express its support so there is no pause in the negotiations," he added.
Diplomats in New York say the highly unpopular Bush administration hopes this resolution will help draw attention to the good it has done for the Middle East and counter some of the criticism it has faced for its 2003 invasion of Iraq.