By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council ended a week of haggling on Tuesday and abandoned efforts to adopt a statement on the crisis in Gaza after Libya and the United States were unable to agree on the wording. The 15-nation council began discussions on a non-binding statement a week ago after Israel sealed all border crossings to the Gaza Strip, complicating the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza's 1.5 million people in what Israel said was a response to Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza. Diplomats told reporters that the council was hopelessly deadlocked due to irreconcilable Libyan and U.S. demands on the content and phrasing of the statement. Libya's ambassador to the United Nations, Giadalla Ettalhi, president of the council for the month of January, indicated that Tripoli blamed Washington for the deadlock. "The members realized this morning that they cannot reach a consensus concerning this," he told reporters. "Why the United States rejected the amendments produced by Libya, I think this is a question to be put to them." The Arab League last week proposed a non-binding draft statement expressing concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, criticizing the attacks on Israel and calling on the Jewish state to reopen the border crossings. The draft found support among all the council members except Washington. It objected to what Deputy U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff described as the failure to address the core issue -- the "illegal coup usurping power from the legitimate Palestinian Authority by the terrorist group Hamas." The Palestinian militant group Hamas seized control of Gaza after routing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah forces in June 2007. The U.S. delegation on Friday proposed a series of amendments that resulted in a near consensus; that proposal was acceptable to every council member except Libya. Libya, the only Arab state on the Security Council, offered a counterproposal on Monday but Washington and other countries found it unacceptable because they said it failed to condemn the attacks against Israel sharply enough. "It is imperative not to equate acts of self-defense with terrorist rocket attacks," Wolff said when asked about his objections to the Libyan counterproposal. Riyad Mansour, the permanent Palestinian representative to the United Nations, made clear he was disappointed. "We had hoped that the council would adopt something. It is very unfortunate that it did not," he said. "I don't think it is a helpful signal." French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert also regretted the council's failure "to react to the gravity of the situation and for the first time to condemn the upsurge in violence, particularly the terrorist rocket attacks against Israel." (Editing by Patricia Zengerle)
A Palestinian Hamas soldier watches Egyptian soldiers close part of a destroyed section of the border wall between the Gaza Strip and Egypt January 29, 2008. Israel will not stand in ...
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