Updated

Arab foreign ministers say they will back Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's efforts to lobby the United Nations to set a deadline for Israel to end its occupation of lands captured in the 1967 war and make way for an independent Palestinian state.

The Palestinian ambassador to Egypt, Jamal al-Shobaki, said Monday that the Arab League resolution issued a day earlier calls for the head of the Arab League to push the idea in the U.N. Security Council and other regional and international groups. Al-Shobaki said the foreign ministers are consulting over the draft resolution to be put to the council.

Abbas floated the idea last month as a way to refocus international attention on Palestinians demands for a state after failed efforts to reach a negotiated peace deal with Israel.