U.N. will take weeks on Palestinian bid - Abbas

By Ali Sawafta

AMMAN (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday he expected the Security Council to finish debating his nation's application for full United Nations membership in weeks, not months.

Speaking to journalists on his plane back from the General Assembly in New York where he presented the request to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Abbas said Security Council members had initially appeared unenthusiastic about discussing the application.

But the mood appeared to change after he made a speech to the General Assembly on Friday, pressing the case for an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, he said.

The United States, Israel's closest ally, has said it will block the application. Both governments say direct peace talks are the correct way for Palestinians to pursue peace. Washington holds veto power in the 15-member Security Council.

"We are talking about weeks not months," Abbas said of the Security Council deliberations, adding that the process could take a maximum 35 days.

Lebanon's U.N. ambassador said the Security Council would convene on Monday to discuss Abbas's application.

Abbas's statehood bid reflects his loss of faith after 20 years of failed peace talks sponsored by the United States, and alarm at Israeli settlement expansion in occupied land that Palestinians want for a state.

Talking about a return to peace talks with Israel, Abbas said: "We will not deal with any initiative which does not contain a halt to settlement or the '67 borders."