UN Council Backs Ban At Start Of Gaza Peace Trip

Ban met behind closed doors with the 15-nation council and said it had `expressed strong support` for his mission.

The U.N. Security Council gave its backing to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as he set off on Tuesday for a weeklong Middle East trip to try to bring about a ceasefire in the 18-day-old conflict in Gaza.

Ban met behind closed doors with the 15-nation council and said it had "expressed strong support" for his mission.

Diplomats who attended the session said that included the United States, which abstained on Thursday on a Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement.

Israel began air strikes on Gaza on Dec. 27 and launched a ground invasion of the territory on Jan. 3 in a bid to stamp out rocket fire against southern Israel by Palestinian militants.

The Palestinian death toll rose to 971 on Tuesday and the U.N. aid official for Gaza appealed to the international community to protect Gaza's civilians, saying nowhere in the territory of 1.5 million people was safe.

Apart from talking to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Ban will also meet leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey to urge them to use their influence to bring about a ceasefire. Current truce efforts revolve around talks Egypt is holding with the parties separately.

Ban has indicated he will have no direct contact with Hamas, an Islamist movement at loggerheads with the Palestinian Authority.

U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said Ban would also "demand that urgent humanitarian assistance be provided without restriction to those in need."

"Everybody supported the role that the Secretary-General can play. The Security Council is united ... We think the timing is right," said French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, current council president.

Ripert brushed aside questions on what Ban could achieve with the violence continuing five days after the council's resolution. "Nobody expects the resolution to be respected in two hours ... (but) we are still thinking that a ceasefire is possible," he said.

The French envoy said the council had not gone into detail with Ban on mechanisms to guarantee any truce. "The first and foremost and most important thing is to get a ceasefire on the ground," he said.

Diplomats said they also expected Ban to discuss with regional leaders reconstruction in Gaza after the violence ends, an effort the United Nations is expected to lead.

The U.N. chief said on Monday that following a ceasefire he would send an assessment team to determine the extent of the damage and of humanitarian needs.