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 (Reuters) - Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Sunday Israel should sever contacts with the Palestinian Authority over its plans to ask the United Nations in September to upgrade the Palestinians' status in the world body.

Citing calls by some Palestinian officials for protests to coincide with the U.N. session, Lieberman, an ultranationalist, told reporters: "What is clear is the Palestinian Authority plans violence and bloodshed of a type we have not yet seen."

Lieberman said he would "demand that we cut off all contact" with the Palestinian Authority, led by Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas, "at the earliest moment," ahead of a request to upgrade Palestinian status at the United Nations

The United States, which has veto power in the U.N. Security Council, is expected to oppose any Abbas bid to seek a unilateral U.N. mandate for statehood in the absence of peace talks with Israel, now frozen by intractable differences over conditions for resuming them.

Palestinian officials say that under an alternative plan, Abbas would ask the General Assembly to upgrade Palestine to a non-member state from its current status as an observer.

It was unclear whether Lieberman could win approval in Prime Minister Benj... >>>