UNITED NATIONS - Ignoring heated Israeli objections and the threat of a US veto, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday he will go-ahead with his diplomatic campaign to gain full UN membership, as the issue of Palestinian statehood takes center stage with world leaders gathering for the opening of the UN General Assembly session. Abbas met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to tell him he would go ahead with the move on Friday despite mounting western pressure to put off the effort. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to hold talks on Wednesday with US President Barack Obama and will address the General Assembly on Friday, called for a meeting with Abbas to relaunch direct negotiations. But Abbas rebuffed the offer. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said diplomats were still hoping to avert a crisis. A vote would be unlikely to take place on Friday, giving time for diplomacy aimed at restarting peace talks, he told Europe 1 radio. Agencies add that Israeli ministers are threatening a broad range of economic and political sanctions against the Palestinians in response to their high-stakes campaign to seek full UN membership. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government strongly oppose the Palestinian bid to seek UN membership for a Palestinian state on the lines that existed before the 1967 Six Day War. But some Israeli officials are pushing for the government to take harsh measures in response to the bid. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has warned of tough and serious consequences and has even raised the idea of cancelling key agreements signed between the two sides. In particular, he has suggested the Palestinian bid could mean the end of the economic cooperation as agreed in the 1994 Paris Accords, under which Israel transfers Palestinian tax and tariff funds to the Palestinians. The funds collected and transferred by Israel amount to about 60 million euros ($82 million) a month and represent about two-thirds of the funds for the Palestinian budget. Without the payments, the Palestinian Authority would quickly lose its ability to pay its 150,000 employees, and the government would effectively be paralysed. The Palestinian crisis has overshadowed this weeks meeting of the UN General Assembly and sparked hectic talks meant to avert a confrontation that carries risks for the Palestinians, Israel and the United States alike. Senior diplomats from the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations the Quartet of Middle East mediators are meeting throughout the week in hopes of finding a way forward. The Quartet has for months been trying to put together guidelines for future peace talks, so far without result. A senior US official described Mondays talks as productive but said he could not predict whether they may succeed.