New York  - UN Security Council members met Tuesday to demand again that Israelis and Palestinians end their decades-long conflict with a comprehensive settlement that includes a Palestinian state.

"A Palestinian state is long overdue," said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, adding that the two sides must take political and security steps to arrive at a full-fledged Palestinian state.

The meeting was attended also by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, British Foreign Minister David Miliband, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei and other council members.

The ministers on Monday attended the diplomatic group on the Middle East - known as the Quartet - to call on Israel and the Palestinians to move forward to a settlement of the conflict.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon voiced regret that the two sides had not been able to reach a settlement by the end of December because of new hurdles. But he said a "serious process" was underway in negotiations between the two sides.

"We must ensure that what has been started is seen all the way through to its conclusion," Ban said.

The council was scheduled to adopt a resolution to support the negotiations initiated in November 2007 at Annapolis, Maryland, where the two sides committed to the "irreversibility of the bilateral negotiations." They had also said they would aim for an agreement by the end of this year.

The draft resolution says the council would support the parties' "agreed principles for the bilateral negotiating process and their determined efforts to reach their goal of concluding a peace treaty resolving all outstanding issues, including all core issues, without exception, which confirm the seriousness of the Annapolis process."

It would urge an intensification of the diplomatic efforts to achieve a "comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East."

The Quartet issued a statement on Monday reaffirming its support for the "bilateral, comprehensive, direct, uninterrupted, confidential and ongoing Israeli-Palestinian negotiations."

A peace roadmap adopted by the Quartet had called for achieving a Palestinian state by the end of 2008. While that target will not be met, the Quartet urged the two sides to move on and lock in progress made so far in talks. (dpa)