RAMALLAH, JERUSALEM, Occupied Palestine

An emergency meeting of the Security Council debated the crisis for more than 10 hours before voting on the Norwegian-sponsored resolution aimed at halting the fighting.

It was passed by 14 votes to nil, with the support of the United States - the second time in a month that Washington has backed a UN resolution on the Middle East after years of abstaining.

Israel criticised the resolution, saying it would not pull out of Ramallah.

The Ramallah office of the Voice of Palestine has been occupied by Israeli troops and has halted broadcasts, a Palestinian journalist said.

The United Nations has called on Israel to pull its troops out of Ramallah, where Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is pinned down inside his ruined headquarters, without electricity or water.

The Security Council passed a resolution on Saturday that urged Israel to withdraw from all West Bank cities and called on both sides to move immediately towards a ceasefire.

Meanwhile, Arafat is confined to one floor of his office block, surrounded by Israeli troops who smashed their way into his headquarters compound on Friday.

His last mobile phone is reportedly out of power, making him lose contact with the outside world, a Palestinian official said Saturday.

"There is only a wall separating him and the Israeli soldiers," said an Israeli army source.

Israeli tanks are also reported to have surrounded the headquarters of Jibril Rajoub, the Palestinian security chief in the West Bank.

Street battles have been raging in Ramallah as Israeli forces conduct house-to-house searches across the city, responding to a wave of bomb attacks by Palestinians.

Palestinian sources said the bodies of five Palestinian men were found shot in the head inside a branch of the Cairo-Amman Bank.

At least five Palestinians - including one of Arafat's bodyguards - were killed and 30 wounded in Friday's assault.