NEW YORK, Dec 23 — New Zealand, Venezuela, Malaysia and Senegal told Egypt yesterday that if it did not clarify by midnight whether it planned to call a vote on a draft UN Security Council resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements, then they reserved the right to move ahead with the text, diplomats said.

"In the event that Egypt decides that it cannot proceed to call for vote on December 23 or does not provide a response by the deadline, those delegations reserve the right to table the draft ... and proceed to put it to vote ASAP,” the four council members said in a note to Egypt, seen by Reuters.

The Palestinians were also a party to the note, which said "there was a strong sense of disappointment” that the 15-member Security Council had not voted on the text as planned yesterday. — Reuters