The Security Council will meet Friday with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who wants a UN force sent to protect Palestinian civilians, the Council president said Wednesday.
The Dutch ambassador to the United Nations, Peter van Walsum, who holds the council presidency this month, said Israel would also be represented at the meeting, but he could not say by whom.
"Both President Arafat and Israel have requested to be heard by the Council on Friday morning," van Walsum told reporters.
"We are shifting around the program of work," he added.
"Normally speaking we would have had the High Commissioner for Refugees, Mrs (Sadako) Ogata, but she is prepared to move to the afternoon to make this possible."
Van Walsum said the meeting would be held behind closed doors, in the Council chamber, and added: "Members of the council have welcomed this opportunity."
He said Council members held consultations on Wednesday and discussed a Palestinian proposal for an international protection force for Palestinian civilians.
The proposal had the support of seven non-aligned nations which have non-permanent seats on the Security Council, but no-one had yet submitted a draft resolution to the Council, he said.
The Palestinian Observer to the United Nations, Nasser Al-Kidwa, wrote to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Monday, repeating his request for deployment of 2,000 military observers to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Despite two agreements between Israelis and Palestinians to put an end to weeks of bloodshed, clashes continued in the Palestinian territories Wednesday.
Five Palestinian teenagers were killed and two others who were wounded in Gaza Strip clashes earlier in the week died overnight, doctors said, bringing to 192 the number of people killed since the violence erupted September 28.
Annan reiterated Tuesday that deploying a protection force would require the green light from Israel, which is adamantly opposed to the idea.
The British ambassador to the UN, Jeremy Greenstock, told reporters "it is essential that both sides agree."
But, he added, "both sides should be able to see that some third input could help with de-escalation of the violence, that must now be the most important short-term objective."
Monday, the United States said it was prepared to consider dispatching unarmed international observers, but not under UN auspices.
Arafat is due in Washington on Thursday for a meeting with US President Bill Clinton.
Clinton was to meet separately with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak on Sunday -- UNITED NATIONS, (AFP)
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