U.S. thwarts Libyan push for Gaza truce demand at U.N.

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States thwarted an effort by Libya on Saturday to persuade the U.N. Security Council to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza after Israel launched a ground invasion, diplomats said.

French U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, currently Security Council president, told reporters after a closed-door session "there was no agreement, but there (were) serious convergences to express serious concern" about the crisis.

The "convergences" of opinions among council members included the need for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and easing the humanitarian crisis Gazans are in, Ripert said.

British Ambassador John Sawers said he was "very disappointed" about the council's failure to agree on a statement during Saturday's 4-hour emergency meeting.

Libya, the only Arab member of the council, had circulated a draft statement expressing "serious concern at the escalation of the situation in Gaza, in particular, after the launching of the Israeli ground offensive" and urged all parties "to observe an immediate ceasefire."

But diplomats said the United States refused to back the Libyan-drafted text and killed the initiative, since council statements must be passed unanimously. Later the United States refused to back a watered-down call for a truce, the diplomats said.

The United States, one of five permanent Security Council members, insists that any statement or resolution state that the Palestinian militant group Hamas is a terrorist organization that seized power in Gaza from the legitimate Palestinian Authority.

U.S. envoy Alejandro Wolff said there was no point in issuing statements that Hamas, which unilaterally declared an end to a 6-month old ceasefire last month, would ignore.