UN settlements vote `biased and shameful`: Netanyahu

Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday rejected a UN resolution demanding a halt to Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

"The decision that was taken was biased and shameful, but we will withstand it," he said in his first official reaction since Friday`s Security Council vote.

"It will take time, but this decision will be annulled," he said at a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony broadcast by Israeli television.

The council passed the measure after the United States abstained, enabling the adoption of the first UN resolution since 1979 to condemn Israel over its settlement policy.

Netanyahu hit out at the administration of US President Barack Obama, accusing it of striking a "shameful blow against Israel at the United Nations".

He said Obama had broken a long-standing US commitment not to "dictate the terms of peace to Israel" at the UN body.

Netanyahu added he had given Israel`s foreign minister a month to review "all Israel`s engagements at the UN, including Israeli funding for UN agencies and the presence in Israel of UN representatives".