U.S. Clarifies Stand on U.N. Teams in Gaza, West Bank : Diplomacy: Washington continues to oppose a permanent mission despite Baker’s saying he would be willing to discuss the issue.

The United States, moving to defuse a storm in relations with Israel, said Thursday it opposes stationing permanent U.N. observers in Israeli-occupied territories.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III ignited a dispute Wednesday when he said the United States is willing to discuss sending U.N. observers to the territories, where 15 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds wounded this week after Sunday’s murder of seven Arabs by a deranged Israeli.

Israel opposes stationing any international force in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

However, State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler made it clear Thursday that Baker’s statement does not mean the United States supports sending a permanent peacekeeping mission.

“On permanent observers, we have always opposed that in the past, and there has been no change in our position,” Tutwiler said.

However, a senior State Department official told Reuters news agency that the United States believes it is appropriate to dispatch a team to investigate the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in light of the latest violence there.

Israel has allowed U.N. investigation teams to enter the territories in the past, but the government reacted angrily to the Baker statement, saying a permanent force would violate Israeli sovereignty and incite violence.

Relations between the two countries have been troubled in recent months, with the Bush Administration making little effort to conceal its annoyance over what it sees as Israeli intransigence in efforts to get a dialogue started with Palestinians.

The U.N. Security Council is to meet today in Geneva to debate the latest violence in the territories. The meeting was moved from U.N. headquarters in New York so that Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, can participate.

At the meeting, the PLO is expected to urge that a U.N. force be stationed in the territories.

In Jerusalem, the Israeli government Thursday strongly reiterated its objection to U.N. observers in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, charging that their presence would raise the level of violence.

On Thursday, the Israeli army relaxed security measures in the West Bank, lifting curfews from several towns. But curfews remained in force most of the day in the entire Gaza Strip and major West Bank towns and refugee camps.