UNSC on collision course over Hamas killing

Capping two days of fractious talks, the council adjourned in deadlock as the United States insisted it would not accept condemning the killing of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin without reference to Hamas, the militant group he founded.

But the Palestinians, represented by lone Arab council member Algeria, said they would not agree to any resolution that mentioned Yassin's Hamas group, which has claimed scores of deadly attacks on Israel in the past three years.

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"He preached hatred and glorified suicide bombings," said the US ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte.

"Yassin was opposed to the existence of the state of Israel and actively sought to undermine a two-state solution" in the Middle East, Negroponte said.

"This Security Council should not, and the United States will not, support initiatives which ignore this reality."

Israel killed Yassin, the wheelchair-bound cleric who founded the radical Islamist group, in a helicopter strike in the Gaza Strip on Monday, drawing condemnation from leaders around the globe.

Algeria forced an open debate at the council on Tuesday after Negroponte blocked a council statement that would have condemned the killing without reference to Hamas's history of attacks on Israel.

The Palestinian representative to the United Nations, Nasser al-Kidwa, denied that he was trying to paint the United States into a corner by forcing a veto on a council resolution about Yassin's assassination.

"A veto has never been our goal and it isn't our goal now," he told reporters after a four-hour session of the council ended in stalemate.

"Our goal is to have action taken by the Security Council now in the right way," he said. But he ruled out Negroponte's call to blame Hamas, saying: "We can't accept any mentioning of any Palestinian group by name."

Nine votes are needed on the 15-nation Security Council to pass a resolution although the five permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- have veto power over all council resolutions.