RAMALLAH, Feb 10 (JMCC) - The United Nations Security Council is expected to meet next week to vote on a resolution condemning Israeli settlements, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told reporters in Ramallah Thursday.

I think that the Security Council will meet on Monday, or the Arab states will request a meeting of the Security Council next week, in order to vote on a resolution condemning the settlements, Abbas said, according to the official news agency, Wafa.

Palestinians have been lobbying the United Nations to issue a statement criticizing Israel for building settlements in the West Bank it has occupied since 1967.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said separately that Palestinians had received the support of 135 countries in the United Nations on the draft resolution.

Palestinians have sought to undermine expected US opposition to the resolution by incorporating wording that US officials themselves have used. Still, the United States is expected to veto the resolution, objecting to the Palestinian appeal to the world body.

Palestinian-Israeli bilateral negotiations have been frozen since last year, with Palestinians refusing to negotiate with Israel as long as it continued its program of settlement expansion.

The appeal to the United Nations is a Palestinian attempt to break the deadlock, they say.