Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has confirmed his intention to seek full membership of the United Nations for a Palestinian state when he goes to the UN General Assembly next week.
"We are going to the United Nations to request our legitimate right, obtaining full membership for Palestine in this organisation," Mr Abbas said in a televised speech.
"We are going to the security council," he added, to rapturous applause from his audience of Palestinian leaders in Ramallah, signaling his determination to press ahead despite efforts by US and European officials to dissuade him.
Both Israel and its main ally, the United States, firmly oppose the initiative, arguing that a Palestinian state can only be created through direct negotiations.
The Palestinians say almost 20 years of on-off direct talks on statehood envisaged by an interim peace accord have hit a dead end for reasons including Israel's refusal to stop expanding settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, lands it took in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and which Palestinians want, along with the Gaza Strip, for an independent state.
The last round of the US-backed talks between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu collapsed nearly a year ago when Israel decline to extend a partial moratorium on West Bank settlement building.
A full halt to such construction on territory the Palestinians say they need for a viable state is one condition they have set for a resumption of negotiations. Israel withdrew settlers from tiny, coastal Gaza in 2005.
Abbas said the UN step would not "end the occupation," but would strengthen the Palestinians' hand.
Washington has already said it will veto any statehood resolution in the Security Council and some US politicians have said they will try to cut American aid to the Palestinians, totaling some $500 million a year, if they refuse to back down.
A statement from Mr Netanyahu's office issued after the speech said the Palestinians were "systematically" avoiding direct talks with Israel.
President Abbas said recognition as a state would allow a return to peace talks, but on a stronger footing. "Negotiations, no matter how difficult, will be between one state and another," he said.
A flurry of diplomacy led predominantly by the European Union has sought to avert the UN showdown by seeking a deal that would bring about a return to talks within weeks, diplomats say. However, the mediation is struggling in the face of long-standing disagreements over the terms of reference.
Failing that, the EU has also been trying to avoid a Security Council confrontation by persuading the Palestinians to accept a diluted upgrade to their status at the United Nations, where they are currently recognised as an "entity."
If the United States does veto the resolution, as expected, the Palestinians could then go to the full UN General Assembly. It does not have the power to grant them full membership, but could recognise Palestine as a non-member state.
Such a move would give the Palestinians possible access to other international bodies, including the International Criminal Court, from where it could seek to sue Israel for the 44-year-long occupation of the West Bank.
Mr Abbas said there was no decision on alternative options the Palestinians could pursue in the event of failure.
"If we succeed, and this is what we are working toward, then we must know that the day following the recognition of the state, the occupation will not end," Mr Abbas said.
"But we will have obtained the world's recognition that our state is occupied and that our land is occupied and not disputed territory, as the Israeli government claims," he said.
Mr Abbas' rivals in the Hamas movement which governs the Gaza Strip dismissed the plan. A spokesman said any result would be "cosmetic, especially when Mahmoud Abbas said his aim is to return to the negotiations with the occupation after all."