A Palestinian bid to upgrade its U.N. status to a sovereign country would jeopardize the peace process with Israel and make it difficult to get the two sides to return to talks on a two-state solution, the United States said on Monday. But the diplomatic drive by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas received support from Russia and Arab countries at a U.N. Security Council debate on the Middle East situation. Having failed last year to win recognition of full statehood at the United Nations, Abbas said last month he would seek a less-ambitious status upgrade at the world body to make it a "non-member state" like the Vatican. The president of the 193-member U.N. General Assembly, Vuk Jeremic, has said the issue will likely be debated in mid-November, after the U.S. elections. Washington argues a Palestinian state can only be created through direct talks.

UPDATE 1-Palestinian status bid jeopardizes peace process, US says | Reuters: "Egypt's U.N. Ambassador Mootaz Ahmadein Khalil, speaking to the council on behalf of the Arab group of countries, said it fully supported the Palestinians bid.

"We expect the General Assembly to adopt a resolution during its current session to upgrade the status of Palestine to become a 'non-member observer state,' as a first step towards reaching full membership," he said.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said: "We believe that the initiative to gain broad international recognition for Palestinian statehood ... complements efforts to achieve a negotiated solution to the conflict with Israel rather than serve as an alternative."

"In no case should they be used by Israel to tighten the screws in the occupied territories or exert any other pressure on the Palestinian authority," he said.

The Palestinians won admission to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in October last year, a move that prompted the United States to cut off funding to the U.N. agency.

A 1990s U.S. law prohibits U.S. funding to any U.N. organization that grants full membership to any group that does not have "internationally recognized attributes" of statehood."

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