A delegation of Arab foreign ministers will urge permanent members of the Security Council next week to vote for Palestinian Authority membership in the world body, the PA-run Maan news agency reported.
Chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat said the group would lobby representatives from the veto-wielding Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States in a bid to sway them in favor of the PA request for membership.
"A delegation of Arab foreign ministers, headed by the foreign minister of Qatar ... will visit the five permanent members at the end of next week to persuade them to vote for UN recognition and membership for the Palestinian state," Erakat said.
The PA plans to approach the Security Council in September to seek recognition for a PA state based on pre-1967 lines, to include Gaza, Judea, Samaria, and east Jerusalem.
But Washington has said it will vote against recognition, and Britain and France have reacted to the bid with caution, suggesting they would prefer the PA to return to peace talks than pursue UN membership.
Erekat said the PA remains committed to the UN path, despite the opposition. He urged the United States and President Barack Obama "to reconsider their position rejecting the Palestinian move to go to the UN for recognition of a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines with east Jerusalem as its capital."
"We call on him to support this approach because it is the only way to preserve the two-state solution," he added.
Erekat also said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon had spoken with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas recently about the bid and told him that the UN was ready to receive a membership request "any time from now until September 20."
Abbas's Fatah party leadership is scheduled to meet on Thursday and Friday of next week to finalize the time-line for submitting the UN membership bid, Erekat said.
Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman previosuly said the PA move would be the end of the Oslo Accords -- under which Israel recognizes the PA -- and would result in a 'diplomatic eye for an eye' on Israel's part.
More recently, Lieberman called for Israel to cut ties with the PA ahead of September. Lieberman also predicted PA arabs would erupt in 'unprecedented violence' irrespective of the outcome.