US: We'll block UN motion

America has made it clear it will veto an emergency United Nations resolution that condemns Israel's air strike on Syrian territory as a violation of international law.

US officials will block the motion in the Security Council unless Syria agrees to include a condemnation of terrorist attacks launched on Israel from within its borders and a pledge to dismantle terrorist bases.

An emergency meeting of the Security Council in New York adjourned without a vote last night, with the US ambassador to the UN, John Negroponte, calling on both sides to pull back from further action.

But he said: "The United States believes that Syria is on the wrong side of the war on terrorism."

The Security Council had been called into a rare weekend session by Syria following the Israeli air raid - the first on its territory for more than 20 years.

Israel has claimed it struck a training camp 14 miles outside Damascus that was used by the Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad, which carried out a suicide bombing at a restaurant in Haifa on Saturday, killing 20 people.

Defence sources in Jerusalem claimed the Syrian camp trained operatives in sabotage, artillery, guerrilla warfare and aeronautics. They say that Syria and Iran routinely trained and financed both Palestinian militant groups and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah.

Syria has claimed it was a Palestinian refugee camp, although it has not so far allowed media access. But the leader of Islamic Jihad, Ramadan Shallah, described the strike as "a grave development that exceeded all rules of the game" and threatened more "resistance operations".

Out of the 15 members of the Security Council, only the US has not criticised the Israeli raid as a dangerous escalation of violence.

Britain's UN ambassador, Emyr Jones Parry, said Israel's action was "unacceptable and represents an escalation". He added: "Israel should not allow its justified anger at continuing terrorism to lead to actions that undermine both the peace process and, we believe, Israel's own interests."

The Syrian envoy to the UN, Fayssal Mekdad, called the air raid a "true and direct embodiment of the terrorism which Israel falsely claims it is fighting".

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa condemned the attack as "state terrorism".

Israeli officials have made their anger known at the decision of the Security Council to meet in the final hours before Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Israel's UN ambassador, Dan Gillerman, attacked Syria, saying: "There are few better exhibits of state sponsorship for terrorism than the one provided by the Syrian regime."

Israel has likened the air raid to the US attack on Afghanistan after the September 11 terrorist attacks, saying it was a "measured, defensive operation".

In the Middle East, tensions are high in the wake of the air strike and Saturday's suicide bombing. In Israel, there was a high security alert today as the country remained virtually closed because of Yom Kippur.