Many Palestinians have protested against the delay in endorsing the Goldstone report [AFP]

Le Luong Minh, Vietnam's ambassador who holds the council presidency this month, said he had scheduled closed-door talks for Wednesday after receiving a request from Libya, the only Arab member on the 15-nation council.

Libya circulated a letter on Tuesday on behalf of the UN Arab group urgently seeking "an emergency meeting" of the council to consider the Goldstone report, Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libya's deputy ambassador, said.

The UN Human Rights Council, based in Geneva, Switzerland, postponed a vote last Friday on a resolution that would have condemned Israel's failure to co-operate with its investigation into the December-January war.

Israel launched a major offensive on the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip in December 2008, saying it wanted to stop rockets fired by Hamas into its territory.

At least 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died during the three-week war.

Libyan initiative

Ahmed Gebreel, a Libyan government spokesman, said his country had requested the meeting "because of the seriousness of the report and because we think it's too long to wait until March".

Palestinians, including members of Fatah, the party of President Mahmoud Abbas, have strongly criticised the Goldstone vote postponement, holding him responsible for the decision.

Following Libya's request, the Palestinian Observer Mission at the UN has expressed "full support" for the move.

"We are welcoming Libya's step that they have asked the Security Council to meet to discuss the Goldstone report," Abbas told the AFP news agency in a telephone conversation from Rome, the Italian capital.

"Libya's step is supporting the Palestinian people's rights."

Palestine TV, the official television channel of the Palestinian Authority (PA), reported that Abbas would send Riyadh al-Malki, the Palestinian foreign minister, to New York to assist in the Libyan bid to have the council address the report.

The Security Council session, however, may not be enough to limit the political damage suffered by Abbas and also Fatah.

Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said that the controversy surrounding the Goldstone report could affect the Palestinian reconciliation deal which Egypt has said will be signed later this month.

"All the Palestinian factions, including Hamas, are angry at the [Palestinian] Authority after what happened with the Goldstone report and this could affect the arrangements for the [reconciliation] dialogue," he said on Wednesday.

"According to Egyptian arrangements up to now, the delegations are due to go to Cairo ... and Egypt is to fix the date of the signing of the deal."

Telltale videotape

The diplomatic and political developments came a day after a Palestinian news agency, Shahab, reported that PA representatives at a meeting in the US initially rejected Israel's request not to endorse the Goldstone report.

But, then, Brigadier Eli Avraham, an Israeli representative, played a videotape showing a meeting between Abbas and Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister during the Gaza war, in which Tzipi Livni, Israel's former foreign minister, was also present, the report said.

The tape showed Abbas trying to convince Barak to continue the offensive, according to the Shahab report.

Avraham also played an audiotape of a telephone call between Dov Weissglass, a senior Israeli official, and al-Tayyib Abdul Rahim, secretary-general of the Palestinian president's office, the report said.

In the conversation, Abdul Rahim noted that circumstances were suitable for entry of the Israeli army into Jabalya and al-Shatea refugee camps, and said that the fall of these two camps would end Hamas's rule in Gaza Strip, Shahab said in its report.

Weissglass then told Abdul Rahim that such an army operation would lead to the deaths of thousands of civilians, but, according to Shahab, Abdul Rahim said: "They have all elected Hamas, so they are the ones who have chosen their fate, not us."

The Israeli delegation warned the PA representatives that it would present the recorded material to the UN and news organisations, forcing the Palestinians to accede to Israel's demand to delay the vote on the Goldstone report, the Shahab report said.

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