HIGHLIGHTS: U.S. Describes Arab Draft Resolution as Being Un-needed & Unhelpful||Palestinians Describe U.S. Stance At Security Council as Being Unreasonable But Say Washington Has Left Door Open for Further Discussions||Further Debate Put off Until Monday|| STORY: The United States insisted on Friday said that any U.N. Security Council resolution on the Middle East would have to condemn by name three Palestinian groups claiming Resistance bombings. (Read photo caption)

U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said during a closed meeting of the council that Washington believed a resolution drafted by Arab nations after Israel's deadly air raid on Gaza City would be unhelpful at this time and was unneeded, council diplomats said.

But Palestinian U.N. observer Nasser al-Kidwa said Washington had left the door open to further discussions although he called the U.S. stance an "unreasonable" one that "would not help building a consensus in the council."

Negroponte said that for any resolution to go forward, the United States -- which has a veto in the 15-nation council -- would want it to have the following four elements:

-- An explicit condemnation of terrorism;

-- A condemnation by name of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, the Islamic Jihad and Hamas, groups that have claimed responsibility for suicide attacks on Israel;

-- An appeal to all parties for a political settlement of the crisis, and

-- A demand for improvement of the security situation as a condition for any call for a withdrawal of Israeli armed forces to positions they held before the September 2000 start of a Palestinian uprising in which 1,467 Palestinians and 564 Israelis have died.

The council put off further debate until Monday on the Arab draft, which demands the "withdrawal of the Israeli occupying forces from Palestinian cities" and a cessation of all violence, military actions and "and acts of terror."

The draft would also state that the council was "gravely concerned at the extrajudiciary execution" in Gaza City and "alarmed at the reoccupation of Palestinian cities" and appeal to both Israelis and Palestinians to cooperate fully in efforts to end the violence and resume peace talks.

Arab nations first put forward the draft text on Wednesday, after an Israeli airstrike the day before that killed 15 Palestinians in Gaza City, including nine children and a militant Hamas leader.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinians burn a picture of U.S. President George W. Bush during a protest by children in the Rafah refugee camp, in the south of the Gaza Strip July 25, 2002 to condemned the Israeli missile attack on Gaza that killed 15 Palestinians, including nine children. The U.N. Security Council debated late into the night about Israel's killing of 15 Palestinians in an attack on the house of a top Hamas commander and the Jewish state said it would investigate the raid. (Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters)
- Jul 26 1:29 PM ET