The Palestinian request for recognition in the United Nations as a full member state went to the Security Council last week and on Monday the panel of 15 decided to consider the application in a formal meeting later in the week.

In other words, they decided to decide later on whether the application should go to a committee to decide what kind of action for the full council to decide on taking before deciding on sending it to the 193-member General Assembly to decide on the application, perhaps in weeks or even months.

Now one can say the request has officially begun to wend its way through the world organization's diplomatic machinery.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday formally presented the application letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon and dramatically showed a copy of the request during his speech to the General Assembly shortly afterward.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict overshadowed everything else here at the UN Headquarters in New York during the annual high- level debate of the UN General Assembly, expected to wind up Tuesday.

Ambassador Nawaf Salam, the permanent representative at the United Nations of Lebanon, this month's president of the Security Council, announced the panel's decision shortly after it was considered in a closed-door session of just over an hour on Monday afternoon.

"The Security Council met in consultation and decided to meet in a formal meeting Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. (EDT) to consider the application of the state of Palestine for membership, to refer it to the Standing Committee on Admissions," he told reporters waiting outside the council's chambers.

Then he walked away.

But Salam was called back by members of the Arabic media and reiterated what he said in English for them and left again. But again he was called back, this time by English-speaking reporters who detected he gave the Arabic media a longer statement.

"Our decision today to hold a formal meeting to consider deferring the matter before the admissions committee is pursuant to Article 59 of the Rules of Procedure of the Security Council," he explained that it was all he added.

"There is a standing committee of the Security Council," he elaborated. "Such a committee exists. The question is of deferring the matter before it and this requires a formal meeting. The formal meeting will be held on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m."

The committee is made up of all 15 members of the Council, the permanent five veto-wielding members of Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus 10 other countries elected to two-year terms.

Rules for any application for membership in the organization, whether or not a previously recognized state, list some prerequisites, which include, having a defined territory, a population within the territory and a government to represent the people. The entity also has to be peaceful and declare it would abide by the UN Charter.

Apparently the Palestinian request satisfies those questions because UN rules say the request has to be presented to the UN Secretary-General. He accepted the Palestinians statehood bid and within a few hours of receiving it handed it over to the council.

"We are grateful of the fact that the secretary-general passed the application to the president of the Security Council very quickly, in fact less than one or two hours," Riyad Mansour, the permanent representative of the Palestinian observer mission at the United Nations, told reporters on Monday. "We are grateful for that."

The United States, one of Israel's strongest supporters already has threatened to scuttle the bid with a veto. However, should it abstain, as unlikely as it seems at this point, there would still have to be nine positive votes and even the Palestinians are not claiming the nine votes.

Washington says the Israeli-Palestinian problem should be settled through negotiations ending up with two states living side- by-side in peace.

Mansour said he expected pressure on Security Council members to not support the bid for full membership.

He acknowledged the Palestinians were actively lobbying Bosnia and Herzegovina, Gabon and Nigeria, three of the 10 elected council members apparently undecided.

Mansour also said when he recently was in Belgrade he met with representatives of Bosnia who were there and said Palestinians planned to meet again with Bosnians in their capital of Sarajevo. He added the Palestinians were also talking with representatives of Gabon and Nigeria.

But, he expressed hope the council would "synchronize with history" and grant its bid to become the 194th member of the United Nations.

Mansour voiced hope to see "fast action by the Security Council. "

"So again, the process has started and we hope that the Security Council will shoulder and address this application with a positive attitude especially since we have 131 countries that have recognized the state of Palestine so far, meaning more than a two- thirds majority (of) ... the international community acknowledged that we succeeded in building the institutions of a state and we are ready to govern ourselves," he said.