Editors' arrests recall Emergency, Zee says

NEW DELHI: Even as the Zee group called it a move to gag the media "without an official declaration of emergency", the two arrested editors of the group were remanded to two days of police custody on Wednesday and chairman Subhas Chandra called by the police to join investigations.

In a clear sign that the crime branch was ready to dig its heels in the case, top officials confirmed that they had served notice to Chandra, who owns the Zee group, on two successive days.

"We had asked him to join the investigation on Tuesday, but he had communicated his inability to do so on that day. We have sent him another notice on Wednesday evening," a top police officer told TOI.

As the Zee group launched a major defence of its arrested editors, a trial court sent two - Sudhir Chaudhary and Samir Ahluwalia - to police custody after Delhi police said it needed to unearth the conspiracy. The arrests were made on basis of a complaint by Congress MP Naveen Jindal's group that the two tried to extort Rs 100 crore for not broadcasting news reports linking the firm to the coal scam.

Metropolitan Magistrate Gomati Manocha also rejected the bail plea of Chaudhary, head of Zee News and Samir Ahluwalia, head of Zee Business.

Appearing before the court, Delhi Police told the court that Subhash Chandra and Punit Goenka, MD of the channel, were also accused in the case. It said Chandra was complicit in the demand of money.

A police source, however, clarified that Goenka had not been send a notice yet. The cops have also now charged Chaudhary and Ahluwalia with cheating, claiming that they also need to examine how the CAG report - which was at the centre of the acrimony between Zee News and the Jindal Group - was accessed by the media organization.

Going on the offensive, the Zee group called the arrests "illegal" and said "intimidating the media may further boomerang (on UPA 2)."

The media house it raised three points for the police. First, it asked what was the sudden provocation for the arrests when both editors were always available for questioning. Second, it pointed out that an interaction of around six hours (meetings between the editors and Jindal officals took place on September 10, 13, 17 and 19) was edited into 14 minutes of "distorted" conversation. And third, the group claimed Jindal himself offered the money to them, a fact that the cops were overlooking.

In a statement, Zee News CEO Alok Agarwal said, "In 65 years of democracy in independent India, this is only the second time the media has been censored without putting an official stamp of emergency".

Agarwal accused Jindal of misusing the official machinery, saying the steel tycoon had earlier tried to influence Zee News by offering money. "The fact is that Jindal is the one who offered money first to the editors, and then, to the company. He also tried to influence various senior functionaries in Zee News, not only directly, but also through various other people, including his elder brother, uncle and some political leaders...," he added.

Asked if his statement could be backed with proof, Agarwal said, "Proof will be produced as and when required."

Police sources, however, said they had proof of a conversation between Ahluwalia and Subhas Chandra immediately after the meeting between the editors and Jindal group. "The call lasted 286 seconds and the call location is inside the hotel, which was the venue of the meeting. We believe the call was made to inform Chandra about the meeting. We need to question Chandra on this aspect," the source said.

Naveen Jindal on Wednesday avoided commenting on the fresh allegations levelled against him by Zee News channel, saying all efforts were directed to ensure that the truth comes out. "I would like to repeat that I have a lot of respect for the media. This matter is under investigation by the Delhi Police. Also, it matter is sub judice. So, I think, it is best that we leave it at that," said Jindal.

Meanwhile, the Jindal group said in a statement that the law was taking its own course. "Zee TV's comment that the arrest of its editors is a Black Day for the media is unfortunate. The arrest of the two journalists being termed Black Day is rather demeaning the credibility of the media. Instead, Black Day was the day when these editors tried to extort Rs 100 crore from the Jindal group," the statement said.

The crime branch maintained that the arrests had been made according to the law, after the CFSL reports reached them confirming that the CD was not doctored. The cops claimed they have enough prima facie evidence, including extensive call record details to build their case.

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Simple measures cut infections caught in hospitals

CHICAGO (AP) — Preventing infections from surgery is a major concern for hospitals and it turns out some simple measures can make a big difference.

A project at seven big hospitals reduced infections after colorectal surgeries by nearly one-third. It prevented an estimated 135 infections, saving almost $4 million.

The measures included having patients shower with special germ-fighting soap before surgery, and having surgery teams change gowns, gloves and instruments during operations to prevent spreading germs picked up during the procedures.

Practices were standardized at the seven hospitals.

The Joint Commission hospital regulating group and the American College of Surgeons directed the project. They announced results on Wednesday.

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Joint Commission: http://www.jointcommission.org

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Obama Taps Twitter for Tax-Cut Push

President Obama today sought to inject a dose of public pressure into the "fiscal cliff" debate, urging Americans who face an across-the-board tax hike in 34 days to lobby lawmakers by phone, email and Twitter.

"If there's one thing I've learned; when the American people speak loudly enough, lo and behold, Congress listens," Obama said from a White House auditorium.

He was flanked by middle-income earners who wrote to the administration about the importance of keeping tax rates low.

Obama branded the effort "#My2K" for social media users, reflecting White House estimates that the average family of four faces a more than $2,000 income tax increase in 2013, unless Congress extends existing rates as part of a debt- and deficit-reduction deal.

The hashtag rose to a top U.S. trend on Twitter by the conclusion of Obama's remarks. But it's unclear what impact the messaging would have on the broader debate, which hinges on whether to raise tax rates on individuals earning more than $200,000 a year and families earning more than $250,000 a year.

Republicans remain largely opposed to any tax rate increases, even though some have in recent days expressed openness to raising revenue through other means -- breaking a longstanding anti-tax pledge -- or even voting to extend lower rates for the middle class now and debating rates for upper-income earners later.

Jewl Samad/AFP/Getty Images

Obama Back in Campaign Mode, Tackles Fiscal Cliff Crisis Watch Video

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Tax Pledge Mutiny as Fiscal Cliff Approaches Watch Video

Obama today pushed for certainty on tax rates for 98 percent of Americans. "If both parties agreed we should not raise taxes on middle-class families, let's begin our work where we agree," he said, voicing optimism that a "framework" for a broader deal can be achieved in the coming weeks with hopes for a final bill by Christmas.

Notably absent from the White House's campaign on "fiscal cliff," however, is any effort to rally public support for corresponding changes in entitlement programs aimed at curbing government spending, something Republicans and leaders of Obama's fiscal commission have called essential to any debt- and deficit-reduction deal.

Administration officials will not say whether an openness to means-testing Medicare, for example, remains on the table even though Obama and his campaign had previously expressed support for asking wealthier seniors to pay higher premiums as part of a deal.

Some top Democrats have even suggested separating entitlement overhaul from the "fiscal cliff" negotiations altogether, focusing only on taxes and other smaller-bore spending reduction measures before the end of the year.

White House spokesman Jay Carney suggested Tuesday that entitlement savings already included in Obama's budget could be sufficient as part of a balanced deal to avert the "cliff," rather than agreeing to potentially more controversial structural changes such as raising the Medicare and Social Security eligibility age.

"It is the president's position that when we're talking about a broad, balanced approach to dealing with our fiscal challenges, that that includes dealing with entitlements," Carney said. "And the president's budget, as you know, includes $340 billion in savings from our entitlement health-care program. So he has demonstrated yet again his commitment to the principle that we need to include as part of our balance approach savings from entitlements."

Republicans and some Democrats, including former Clinton chief of staff and fiscal commission co-chair Erskine Bowles, insist that more sweeping changes must be considered.

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Egypt assembly seeks to wrap up constitution

CAIRO (Reuters) - The assembly writing Egypt's constitution said it could wrap up a final draft later on Wednesday, a move the Muslim Brotherhood sees as a way out of a crisis over a decree by President Mohamed Mursi that protesters say gives him dictatorial powers.

But as Mursi's opponents staged a sixth day of protests in Tahrir Square, critics said the Islamist-dominated assembly's bid to finish the constitution quickly could make matters worse.

Two people have been killed and hundreds injured in countrywide protest set off by Mursi's decree.

The Brotherhood hopes to end the crisis by replacing Mursi's controversial decree with an entirely new constitution that would need to be approved in a popular referendum, a Brotherhood official told Reuters.

It is a gamble based on the Islamists' belief that they can mobilize enough voters to win the referendum: they have won all elections held since Hosni Mubarak was toppled from power.

But the move seemed likely to deepen divisions that are being exposed in the street.

The Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies called for protests on Saturday in Tahrir Square, setting the stage for more confrontation with their opponents, who staged a mass rally there on Tuesday.

The constitution is one of the main reasons Mursi is at loggerheads with non-Islamist opponents. They are boycotting the 100-member constitutional assembly, saying the Islamists have tried to impose their vision for Egypt's future.

The assembly's legal legitimacy has been called into question by a series of court cases demanding its dissolution. Its popular legitimacy has been hit by the withdrawal of members including church representatives and liberals.

"We will start now and finish today, God willing," Hossam el-Gheriyani, the assembly speaker, said at the start of its latest session in Cairo, saying Thursday would be "a great day".

"If you are upset by the decree, nothing will stop it except a new constitution issued immediately," he said. Three other members of the assembly told Reuters there were plans to put the document to a vote on Thursday.

ENTRENCHING AUTHORITARIANISM

Just down the road from the meeting convened at the Shura Council, protesters were again clashing with riot police in Tahrir Square. Members of the assembly watched on television as they waited to go into session.

"The constitution is in its last phases and will be put to a referendum soon and God willing it will solve a lot of the problems in the street," said Talaat Marzouk, an assembly member from the Salafi Nour Party, as he watched the images.

But Wael Ghonim, a prominent activist whose online blogging helped ignite the anti-Mubarak uprising, said a constitution passed in such circumstances would "entrench authoritarianism".

The constitution is supposed to be the cornerstone of a new, democratic Egypt following Mubarak's three decades of autocratic rule. The assembly has been at work for six months. Mursi had extended its December 12 deadline by two months - extra time that Gheriyani said was not needed.

The constitution will determine the powers of the president and parliament and define the roles of the judiciary and a military establishment that had been at the heart of power for decades until Mubarak was toppled. It will also set out the role of Islamic law, or sharia.

The effort to conclude the text quickly marked an escalation, said Nathan Brown, a professor of political science at George Washington University in the United States.

"It may be regarded with hostility by a lot of state actors too, including the judiciary," he said.

Leading opposition and former Arab League chief figure Amr Moussa slammed the move. He walked out of the assembly earlier this month. "This is nonsensical and one of the steps that shouldn't be taken, given the background of anger and resentment to the current constitutional assembly," he told Reuters.

Once drafted, the constitution will go to Mursi for approval, and he must then put it to a referendum within 15 days, which could mean the vote would be held by mid-December.

COURTS DECLARE STRIKE

Deepening the crisis further on Wednesday, Egypt's Cassation and Appeals courts said they would suspend their work until the constitutional court rules on the decree.

The judiciary, largely unreformed since the popular uprising that unseated Mubarak, was seen as a major target in the decree issued last Thursday, which extended his powers and put his decisions temporarily beyond legal challenge.

"The president wants to create a new dictatorship," said 38-year-old Mohamed Sayyed Ahmed, an unemployed man, in Tahrir.

Showing the depth of distrust of Mursi in parts of the judiciary, a spokesman for the Supreme Constitutional Court, which earlier this year declared void the Islamist-led parliament, said it felt under attack by the president.

In a speech on Friday, Mursi praised the judiciary as a whole but referred to corrupt elements he aimed to weed out.

"The really sad thing that has pained the members of this court is when the president of the republic joined, in a painful surprise, the campaign of continuous attack on the Constitutional Court," said the spokesman Maher Samy.

Senior judges have been negotiating with Mursi about how to restrict his new powers.

Mursi's administration insists that his actions were aimed at breaking a political logjam to push Egypt more swiftly towards democracy, an assertion his opponents dismiss.

The West worries about turbulence in a nation that has a peace treaty with Israel and is now ruled by Islamists they long kept at arms length.

Trying to ease tensions with judges, Mursi said elements of his decree giving his decisions immunity applied only to matters of "sovereign" importance, a compromise suggested by the judges.

A constitution must be in place before a new parliament can be elected, and until that time Mursi holds both executive and legislative powers. An election could take place in early 2013.

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry and Marwa Awad; Writing by Edmund Blair and Tom Perry; Editing by Will Waterman and Giles Elgood)

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Indian minister in strong attack on microfinance

NEW DELHI: Microfinance is a "discredited model" and to believe that poverty alleviation in India is possible through such methods is "c**p", Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said Wednesday.

"Nothing can stop an idea whose time has gone," Ramesh told a microfinance conference in New Delhi, according to the Press Trust of India.

"It is a discredited model," he said, referring to the system in which small loans are made to people who do not have access to the mainstream banking system.

Ramesh, known for being outspoken, conceded that "there are many advantages when it comes to delivery of finance through the microfinance route".

"But one should be somehow more modest in the expectation of microfinance and microfinance institutions," he went on.

"To think that we are going alleviate poverty is a tall, tall claim. Poverty alleviation through microfinance -- it is c**p."

The multi-billion-dollar industry in India, once seen as a saviour of the poor, has been in crisis since a backlash against alleged abusive practices by debt collectors and extremely high interest rates for loans.

The sector has also under been fire in neighbouring Bangladesh where the micro-lending model was pioneered, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accusing the industry of "sucking blood from the poor" due to high lending rates.

-AFP/ac

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Two Zee editors arrested for 'Rs 100-crore extortion bid'

NEW DELHI: The crime branch of Delhi Police on Tuesday arrested two editors of Zee group on charges of extortion based on a complaint filed by Congress MP Naveen Jindal. They are Sudhir Chaudhary, business head and editor of Zee News and Sameer Ahluwalia, head of Zee business, a senior police officer said.

S B S Tyagi, DCP (Crime Branch), said: "Prima facie evidence of criminal conspiracy and extortion has been found against the two leading to their arrest." The Zee editors had earlier denied charges levelled against them.

The police said the arrests came after forensic experts submitted a report stating the CD containing the audio and video recording of the conversation between Zee editors and Jindal's officials was "not doctored". The inter-state cell of crime branch has found other conclusive evidence against the duo, it is claimed.

"The two editors were called for questioning on Tuesday during which they could not give satisfactory answers to our questions. They were informed around 8.30pm about their arrests after four hours of questioning. They will be produced in Saket court at 2pm on Wednesday," a senior police officer said.

Earlier, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) had provided the police with audio recordings of telephonic conversation and video recording of three meetings held on September 13, 17 and 19 between Zee and JSPL officials at Hyatt Regency hotel in Delhi.

In their FIR, Naveen Jindal's company JSPL had also named Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra and his son Punit Goenka as co-accused, alleging criminal conspiracy, extortion, criminal intimidation and defamation by Zee News and its officials, police said.

In mid-October, the Broadcast Editors' Association (BEA) had removed Sudhir Chaudhary from the post of treasurer and primary membership of the body.

The crime branch of Delhi Police had registered an FIR against the two office bearers and others for allegedly trying to extort Rs 100 crore from the Naveen Jindal. The FIR was lodged under sections of extortion after the HR head of Jindal's company gave a written complaint to the police against the duo and others levelling allegations of extortion in form of advertisements to drop certain stories regarding the coal mine allocations.

The complainant had alleged that the duo reportedly met officials of Jindal group and told them that reports against them could be dropped if the amount was paid.

As per the complainant, several phone calls were exchanged. The complainant alleged that when they declined to pay up the money, the channel ran a series of malicious news items targeting them.

Reacting to the move, Sudhir Chauhary had earlier told TOI that the allegations were baseless, false and fabricated. "Jindals were the biggest beneficiaries in the coal block allocation scam and we had exposed them. If they are targeting us, they are targeting investigative journalism. It's an attempt to malign us and seems a result of their frustration after being exposed," he had said.

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CDC: HIV spread high in young gay males

NEW YORK (AP) — Health officials say 1 in 5 new HIV infections occur in a tiny segment of the population — young men who are gay or bisexual.

The government on Tuesday released new numbers that spotlight how the spread of the AIDS virus is heavily concentrated in young males who have sex with other males. Only about a quarter of new infections in the 13-to-24 age group are from injecting drugs or heterosexual sex.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said blacks represented more than half of new infections in youths. The estimates are based on 2010 figures.

Overall, new U.S. HIV infections have held steady at around 50,000 annually. About 12,000 are in teens and young adults, and most youth with HIV haven't been tested.

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CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns

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GOP Senators More Troubled After Rice Meeting

United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice's attempts to make nice with a trio of Republican senators who have criticized her response to the Sept. 11 terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, seem to have backfired.

The senators said they left their face-to-face meeting with Rice this morning "more concerned" and "significantly troubled."

The three Republicans, Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, said not only did Rice, who was joined by Acting CIA Director Mike Morell, not answer all their questions about the attack but did little to assuage their overall worries.

"We are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got, and some that we didn't get concerning evidence that was overwhelming leading up to the attack on the consulate," McCain said.

"The concerns I have are greater today than before, and we're not even close to getting the basic answers," Graham said.

Today's meeting was seen as part of Rice's Capitol Hill "charm offensive," as her possible nomination to become the next secretary of state has met with some vocal opposition – especially from McCain, Graham and Ayotte, who still seemed to steer clear of questions about whether they would stand in the way if Rice was nominated.

"Before anybody can make an intelligent decision about promoting someone involved in Benghazi, we need to do a lot more," Graham said. "To this date, we don't have the FBI interviews of the survivors conducted one or two days after the attack. We don't have the basic information about what was said the night of the attack ... as of this date."

Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. Dick Durbin on 'This Week' Watch Video

Graham compared the situation to 2006, when Senate Democrats blocked the nomination of John Bolton, President Bush's choice for U.N. ambassador.

What the senators seemed to find most problematic was Rice's statement on the Sunday morning news shows days after the attack. At first, she said it was a "spontaneous" attack and not a terrorist attack.

Ayotte said that in today's meeting Rice called the information she first gave to the American people wrong.

"It's certainly clear from the beginning that we knew that those with ties to al Qaeda were involved in the attack on the embassy, and clearly the impression that was given, the information given to the American people, was wrong," Ayotte said,

Ayotte said that as the U.N. ambassador should have stepped up and said that she couldn't go on the Sunday morning news shows and talk about the attack if that was the case.

In her defense, Rice said in a statement following the meeting: "We explained that the talking points provided by the intelligence community, and the initial assessment upon which they were based, were incorrect in a key respect: There was no protest or demonstration in Benghazi. While, we certainly wish that we had had perfect information just days after the terrorist attack, as is often the case, the intelligence assessment has evolved. We stressed that neither I nor anyone else in the administration intended to mislead the American people at any stage in this process, and the administration updated Congress and the American people as our assessments evolved."

Graham, like Ayotte, said it would have been better not to give any information at all.

"If you can give nothing but bad information, isn't it better to give no information at all? It was unjustified to give the scenarios as presented by Ambassador Rice and President Obama three weeks before an election."

Rice is expected to meet with Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., later today. A close ally of McCain (Lieberman endorsed McCain for president in 2008), Lieberman has not been as quick to criticize Rice.

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Mursi opponents clash with police in Cairo

CAIRO (Reuters) - Opponents of President Mohamed Mursi clashed with Cairo police on Tuesday as thousands of protesters around the nation stepped up pressure on the Islamist leader to scrap a decree they say threatens Egypt with a new era of autocracy.

Police fired tear gas at stone-throwing youths in streets off the capital's Tahrir Square, heart of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak last year. Protesters also turned out in Alexandria, Suez, Minya and cities in the Nile Delta.

A 52-year-old protester died after inhaling teargas in Cairo, the second death since last week's decree that expanded Mursi's powers and barred court challenges to his decisions.

Tuesday's protest called by leftists, liberals and other groups deepened the worst crisis since the Muslim Brotherhood politician was elected in June, and exposed a divide between the newly empowered Islamists and their opponents.

Mursi's administration has defended his decree as an effort to speed up reforms and complete a democratic transformation. Opponents say it shows he has dictatorial instincts.

"The people want to bring down the regime," protesters in Tahrir chanted, echoing slogans used in the anti-Mubarak revolt.

Mursi's move provoked a rebellion by judges and battered confidence in an economy struggling after two years of turmoil.

Opponents have accused Mursi of behaving like a modern-day pharaoh, a jibe long leveled at Mubarak. The United States, a benefactor to Egypt's military, has expressed concern about more turbulence in a country that has a peace treaty with Israel.

"We don't want a dictatorship again. The Mubarak regime was a dictatorship. We had a revolution to have justice and freedom," 32-year-old Ahmed Husseini said in Cairo.

Some protesters have been camped out since Friday in Tahrir, and violence has flared around the country, including in a town north of Cairo where a Muslim Brotherhood youth was killed in clashes on Sunday. Hundreds have been injured.

Supporters and opponents of Mursi threw stones at each other and some hurled petrol bombs in the Delta city of el-Mahalla el-Kubra. A doctor said nine people were brought to hospital, but he expected numbers to rise to dozens.

SHOW OF STRENGTH

The protest was a show of strength by the non-Islamist opposition, whose fractious ranks have been brought together by the crisis. Well-organized Islamists have consistently beaten more secular-minded parties at the ballot box in elections held since Mubarak was ousted in February, 2011.

"The main demand is to withdraw the constitutional declaration (decree). This is the point," said Amr Moussa, former Arab League chief and presidential candidate who has joined the opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front.

Some scholars from the prestigious al-Azhar mosque and university joined Tuesday's protest, showing that Mursi and his Brotherhood have alienated some more moderate Muslims. Members of Egypt's large Christian minority also joined in.

Mursi formally quit the Brotherhood on taking office, saying he would be a president for all Egyptians, but he is still a member of its Freedom and Justice Party.

The decree issued on Thursday expanded his powers and protected his decisions from judicial review until the election of a new parliament expected in the first half of 2013.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said it gives Mursi more power than the interim military junta from which he took over.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told an Austrian paper he would encourage Mursi to resolve the issue by dialogue.

Trying to ease tensions with judges outraged at the step, Mursi has assured Egypt's highest judicial authority that elements of the decree giving his decisions immunity would apply only to matters of "sovereign" importance. Although that should limit it to issues such as a declaration of war, experts said there was room for much broader interpretation.

In another step to avoid more confrontation, the Muslim Brotherhood cancelled plans for a rival mass rally in Cairo on Tuesday to support the decree. Violence has flared in the past when both sides have taken to the streets.

But there has been no retreat on other elements of the decree, including a stipulation that the Islamist-dominated body writing a new constitution be protected from legal challenge.

LEGITIMACY UNDERMINED

"The decree must be cancelled and the constituent assembly should be reformed. All intellectuals have left it and now it is controlled by Islamists," said 50-year-old Noha Abol Fotouh.

With its popular legitimacy undermined by the withdrawal of most of its non-Islamist members, the assembly faces a series of court cases from plaintiffs who claim it was formed illegally.

Mursi issued the decree on November 22, a day after he won U.S. and international praise for brokering an end to eight days of violence between Israel and Hamas around the Gaza Strip.

Mursi's decree was seen as targeting in part a legal establishment still largely unreformed from Mubarak's era, when the Brotherhood was outlawed.

Though both Islamists and their opponents broadly agree that the judiciary needs reform, Mursi's rivals oppose his methods.

Rulings from an array of courts this year have dealt a series of blows to the Brotherhood, leading to the dissolution of the first constitutional assembly and the lower house of parliament elected a year ago. The Brotherhood dominated both.

The judiciary blocked an attempt by Mursi to reconvene the Brotherhood-led parliament after his election victory. It also stood in the way of his attempt to sack the prosecutor general, another Mubarak holdover, in October.

In his decree, Mursi gave himself the power to sack that prosecutor and appoint a new one. In open defiance of Mursi, some judges are refusing to acknowledge that step.

Mursi has repeatedly stated the decree will stay only until a new parliament is elected - something that can happen once the constitution is written and passed in a popular referendum.

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry, Seham Eloraby, Marwa Awad and Yasmine Saleh in Cairo and Michael Shields in Vienna; Writing by Edmund Blair and Tom Perry; Editing by Anna Willard, David Stamp and Alastair Macdonald)

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France to back Palestinian bid for enhanced UN status

PARIS: France on Tuesday said it will back a Palestinian bid for enhanced UN status at a General Assembly vote this week, a move hailed by the Palestinians as a "historic" step in their quest for greater global recognition.

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Paris had a "consistent position" in support of recognising a Palestinian state and told the National Assembly that France, one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, would vote for "non-member observer state" status for the Palestinians.

France is the first European power to voice its approval of the Palestinian move to upgrade its current permanent observer status.

The proposal is set to sail through as it has the backing of the majority of the UN's 193 member states.

It will improve the chances of the Palestinians joining the International Criminal Court and UN agencies. The Palestinians want to launch legal action in The Hague-based court to challenge Israel's occupation of the West Bank.

"We will vote with coherence and clarity," Fabius said.

"You know that for years and years France's consistent position has been the recognition of the Palestinian state," he said, recalling that former French president Francois Mitterrand had staked out that stance in a 1982 speech to the Israeli parliament.

That line was unchanged even during the tenure of former right-wing president Nicolas Sarkozy when Palestine was admitted to UNESCO last year, he said, adding that recognition of Palestine was one of current President Francois Hollande's campaign planks.

"That is why when the question is raised on Thursday and Friday, France will respond with a 'yes'," he said.

The draft resolution seeking the status upgrade also calls on the UN Security Council to "consider favourably" the Palestinian request for full membership made one year ago.

The United States, Israel's staunch ally, had blocked that move at the 15-nation council.

The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations on Tuesday urged other powers to follow France's example, which he hailed as a landmark step.

"It is of a magnitude of a historic level and I am sure that many other European countries will follow the example of France and we thank them in advance for being on the side of history and the side of humanity," Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour told reporters.

Israel had little to say on the development, with the foreign ministry merely saying that it was "no surprise".

"We knew that France was inclined to vote for this resolution, so we expected as much," spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP in an email.

Britain, also a permanent member of the Security Council, has not yet decided whether it will vote for the resolution, said the country's UN ambassador, Mark Lyall Grant.

He told reporters that Britain believes the Palestinians should delay their application, but is still in talks with the Palestinian Authority and will decide "in due time" how to vote.

The Austrian foreign ministry also said Tuesday it would back the bid and claimed that more than half the European Union's 27 member states would vote for it.

Diplomats have predicted that between 11 and 15 EU countries could back the Palestinian proposal.

The new resolution will also call for a Middle East settlement that "fulfils the vision of two states, an independent, sovereign, democratic, contiguous and viable state of Palestine, living side-by-side in peace and security with Israel, on the basis of the pre-1967 borders."

It also highlights the "urgent need" for a resumption of peace talks, frozen in September 2010 when Israel refused a Palestinian demand to extend a moratorium on settlement building in the occupied territories.

The United States and Israel have opposed the UN application, insisting that only direct talks on a peace accord can produce an agreement that will create a Palestinian state.

Fabius on Tuesday also highlighted what he called the "extremely fragile" nature of last week's ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

"It's only through immediate and unconditional negotiations between the two sides, which we are seeking, that one can fulfil the creation of a Palestinian state," he said.

The Palestinian territories are already gripped by their worst economic crisis in decades but the Palestinians say they are going to the UN General Assembly out of frustration at the lack of progress in peace talks during Obama's first term.

AFP/ac

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