Several officials close to Abbas on Friday had predicted this would be the consensus of a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive later in the day to discuss President Barack Obama's telephone call with Abbas on Thursday. The UN Security Council was scheduled to start discussions later Friday on a draft resolution that Arab states submitted in January, demanding that Israel halt settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The Palestinians say continued building flouts the internationally-backed peace plan that will permit them to create a viable, contiguous state on the land after a treaty with Israel to end its occupation and 62 years of conflict.

Israel says this is an excuse for avoiding peace talks and a precondition never demanded before during 17 years of negotiation, which has so far produced no agreement.

Obama, who has said Israeli settlements in territories it captured in a 1967 war are illegal and unhelpful to the peace process, is opposed to a UN move that in Washington's view could shatter hopes of reviving the stalled talks.

In a 50-minute phone call, he asked Abbas to drop the resolution and settle for a non-binding statement condemning settlement expansion, Palestinian officials said. Abbas on Friday received a follow-up call from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the issue, the Palestinian news agency Wafa said.

"Caving in to American pressure and withdrawing the resolution will constitute Goldstone 2," said a Palestinian official.

He was referring to the wave of protest in October 2009 accusing Abbas of caving in to US pressure by agreeing not to submit for adoption a UN report that accused Israel and Hamas Islamists of war crimes during the brief Gaza war two years ago.

"It will be a political catastrophe if we withdraw this resolution," a second Palestinian official earlier said.

"People would take to the streets and would topple the president," he said, noting the wave of protest in the Arab world that swept out the Egyptian and Tunisian presidents. "It would have been easier for us if there were no revolts in the Arab world," another Palestinian official said.