Israel's offensive in Gaza left about 1,400 Palestinians dead [EPA]

Imad Zuhairi, the Palestinian deputy permanent observer at the Human Rights Council, said that because of the "historic importance" of the resolution it was important to get fullest possible consensus to pass a resolution to have the 47-member forum adopt the report.

Adopting the report would mean that it is referred to the UN Security Council for further action.

Zamir Akhram, the Pakistan representative to the council, said that it had been decided by the resolution's sponsors - Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Tunisia -  to withhold the vote and re-introduce the resolution at the next sitting of the forum in March 2010.

He said the resolution would not be tabled because of a lack of consensus.

The Palestinian delegation also said that there is a realisation that current attempts to renew negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians would be severely impacted by an insistence that the vote be held at this stage.

The Palestinian Authority had endorsed the Goldstone report when it was released last month, and on Tuesday the Palestinian representative speaking as an observer at the council had said the report "was a professional, unbiased report and related to facts that could not be denied".

In the debate of the draft earlier this week, the wording of the resolution was contested principally by the US, the EU and France, and Israeli media reported that the decision to defer the endorsement follows pressure from Washington.

On Thursday, Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said any action to endorse the report would strike a fatal blow to the stalled so-called peace process between Israelis and the Palestinians.

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