UNITED NATIONS, April 20: Following Israel’s reluctant approval the UN Security Council on Friday night unanimously adopted a resolution approving the constitution of a fact-finding team to look into allegations of a massacre at the Jenin refugee camp by Israeli forces.

The resolution expressed concern over “the dire humanitarian situation of the Palestinian civilian population”.

The resolution says UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, with cooperation from Israel, was welcome to send a “fact-finding team” to gather information on recent events in Jenin.

Earlier the United States had threatened to veto an Arab-drafted measure calling for a formal UN investigation of the massacre in Jenin. But then Washington presented its own milder text.

In a telephone call Israeli foreign minister, Shimon Peres, told Secretary General, Kofi Annan, that Israel would be willing to have the United Nations send a representative to look into the Israeli military action in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.

Mr Peres’s offer came during a day of intense diplomatic manoeuvring by Israel and the American delegation here aimed at avoiding an American veto in the Security Council of a strongly worded Arab resolution expressing shock at reports of a massacre there and calling for a formal United Nations investigation.

The resolution is the fourth in a month on the escalating violence. The 15-member Security Council approved three resolutions in March and early April demanding an immediate ceasefire and an Israeli troop withdrawal from West Bank cities “without delay”.

It reaffirmed those resolutions in Friday’s text.

Each time the Bush administration has offered a substitute text to soften the language, in an apparent attempt to avoid using a veto and thereby further inflame tensions in the Arab world.

The Security Council emphasized the urgency of access of medical and humanitarian organizations to the Palestinian civilian population and called for the lifting of restrictions imposed on the operations of humanitarian organizations.

Palestinian authorities say that about 500 people were massacred by Israeli forces in the Jenin refugee camp.

The resolution refrained from using the word “massacre” and did not touch on the withdrawal of Israeli forces from occupied areas, showing consideration toward the position of the Israeli government.

Israel, in a statement describing the conversation between Peres and Annan, said pointedly that “the foreign minister did not suggest, nor did he agree to the establishment on an international commission of inquiry”.

Annan himself had not called for a probe into the events in Jenin. In answer to reporters questions on Thursday he said he thought an investigation would happen but his priority was to assist the living “trapped in that camp”.

“We joined a united Security Council in welcoming the initiative of the secretary-general today in consultation with Israeli authorities who are ready to cooperate with him,” US Ambassador John Negroponte said.

Palestinian UN observer Nasser Al-Kidwa said, “We believe a serious war crime was committed, a serious massacre was committed, and therefore some people will have to be held responsible and perhaps brought to justice.”