Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected a U.S. demand not to put the continuation of Jewish settlement activities before the UN Security Council (UNSC), an official said Thursday.

Abbas "was informed" that Washington failed to convince Israel to stop the settlement building in the West Bank, said Ghassan al- Shak'a, a senior official from Palestine Liberation Organization ( PLO).

On Wednesday, Abbas asked his representative at the UN to request an urgent meeting for the UNSC after Israel revealed plans to build some 1,800 houses in settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Al-Shak'a said the United States, which brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians in September, asked Abbas to postpone the request to the UNSC "and he rejected." The talks stopped on Sept. 26, when Israel allowed a moratorium on construction in the West Bank settlements to expire.

Moving to the UNSC aims at issuing another resolution to stop the settlement and "to remind that the settlement is illegal," Al- Shak'a said.