The United States today questioned the value of monthly public meetings of the UN Security Council on the Middle East, saying the angry speeches delivered often made the problem worse.
"The polarization and divisions of the United Nations membership over the conflict all too often manifest themselves as heated political statements," US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told this month's meeting.
These "do little to help advance the cause of peace or help the Palestinian people in any tangible way," he told the 15-nation council.
The meetings have been held for the past six years and focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Lebanon. They typically consist of a briefing from a senior UN official followed by speeches from council members and other parties with a direct interest in the situation.
Mr Khalilzad said the United States wanted to see a "difference on the ground" in the Middle East and an effort to negotiate creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
"If these types of meetings do not contribute to that effort, or worse, if they fuel the tensions that impede constructive engagement, then we need to ask ourselves whether the public format of debates in New York truly helps create the environment necessary" for a solution, he said.
Mr Khalilzad told reporters later that some countries used the meetings "for posturing, for finger-pointing, for further polarizing, for scoring points ... We have to really ask ourselves what useful purpose a format like this serves."
Meanwhile peace envoy Tony Blair said Palestinians and Israelis must try to improve living conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to keep the peace process alive ahead of a visit by US President George W. Bush in May.
Mr Blair also told the European Parliament that progress in the peace talks was crucial to build Palestinian confidence in the negotiations and to show Israelis that Palestinians could take charge of security, and called for a new strategy on dealing with the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
"We are approaching the crunch time for this stage of this process," said the former British prime minister, now envoy for the Quartet of Middle East peace brokers - the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.
"President Bush will go back to Israel at the beginning of May," he said.