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JERUSALEM: Israel will rely on the support of the permanent United Nations Security Council members Britain, France and the US to block the progress of a report accusing it of committing war crimes in Gaza.

The report, by a South African judge, Richard Goldstone, was formally adopted by the UN's Human Rights Council on Friday, and passed on for deliberation to the more powerful Security Council.

The Human Rights Council's resolution threatens strong action against Israel by the Security Council and the International Criminal Court should there be no serious internal investigations of evidence of war crimes cited by the Goldstone fact-finding mission.

But the Security Council is considered unlikely to take action, as the US has indicated it will use its veto over the council's agenda to block discussion of the report.

Israeli leaders reacted angrily to the Human Rights Council's vote and the accompanying resolution condemning Israeli violations of human rights in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, and criticising Israel for failing to co-operate with the fact-finding mission.

The Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in discussions at the weekend that Israel should fight the criticism and make intense diplomatic efforts to ensure support for its opposition to the report.

The countries that voted in favour of the report voted against peace and for terror. We will delegitimise the delegitimisation >>>