Al Quds, Oct 13: The Israeli army has retracted an accusation that Palestinian militants in Gaza used a UN ambulance to transport a rocket for firing at Israel, officials said on Wednesday.

The UNRWA agency said the Israeli statement was insufficient and it needed a full public apology to safeguard the security of UN staff operating in the area. "We are asking for an apology that is just as well publicized as the original accusation," spokesman Paul McCann said. "Not for the sake of wounded pride but to assist in the safety of our staff."

Israel had raised a stir at the United Nations last week with its accusation against the Gaza-based UN agency based on a blurry video recorded by a military drone aircraft.

It had asserted that a long, thin object that was photographed being loaded into a vehicle with UN markings was a Qassam rocket, a crude type of weapon frequently fired by Palestinian militants into southern Israel.

UNRWA said the object was a stretcher, not a rocket. A UN team arrived in Israel to investigate the allegations, which sparked a furious war of words that culminated in demands for the dismissal of UNRWA chief Peter Hansen. But an Israeli army statement said on Wednesday that an inquiry had concluded "the nature of the object loaded on the vehicle cannot be determined with certainty.

Thus the determination that the object loaded was a Qassam rocket was too unequivocal and made in haste." The army removed the video from its website, saying doubts had been raised that warranted further investigation.

An Israeli security source said the fact that one person had lifted the object "suggested it was not heavy enough" to be a rocket. Mr Hansen has demanded a formal apology. A UN spokesman in New York downplayed that demand.

The ambulance spat added a chapter to the history of strained relations between the UN and Israel which sees the world body as a bastion of anti-Israel bias and is especially suspicious of UNRWA's activities in the West Bank and Gaza.

Israel has accused UNRWA of ignoring use of its vehicles and facilities by militants waging a four-year-old revolt. UNRWA denies this and accuses Israel of wanton destruction of Palestinian homes.

Israel is pressing a two-week-old offensive in northern Gaza, in which 96 Palestinians have so far been killed UN Secretary General Kofi Annan chided Israel following the admission.

"Should any further issues arise, the secretary general expects the government of Israel to share with the United Nations, through normal diplomatic channels, any information it might have so that the matter may be properly investigated," Mr Annan's spokesman said in a statement. -Reuters/ AFP