The UN's political chief Lynn Pascoe said yesterday that Israel and the Palestinians would probably not reach an agreement by year's end.

But the two parties' engagement in direct, sustained and intensive negotiations was welcome, Pascoe told the Security Council in a monthly briefing.

He said that in a "landmark meeting" on Nov. 9 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the parties to the Middle East peace process had jointly met for the first time with the Quartet since last year's Annapolis Conference.

Talks were expected to continue through the coming period, although domestic political matters in Israel -- among them, Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni's inability to form a coalition government and President Shimon Peres' decision to call for new elections now scheduled for Feb. 10, 2009 -- might complicate matters, Pascoe said.

Palestinians also remained divided as Hamas had decided not to attend the reconciliation meeting called by Egypt for Nov. 9 and the rhetoric between Hamas and Fatah had intensified, he said.

Pascoe stressed that recent developments in the occupied Palestinian territory and in Israel underscored the gap between the political tracks and the situation on the ground.

The death of 16 Palestinians had resulted from Israeli-Palestinian violence, while 122 others, mainly civilians, had been injured. One Israeli had been killed in Jerusalem last month, while 25 Israeli soldiers and civilians had been injured.

Turning to humanitarian concerns, he noted that Israeli authorities had severely restricted the access of humanitarian workers and goods into Gaza during the most of November.

UN food aid had been suspended and the Gaza power plant had shut down for more than 12 days. Fuel shortages, including that of cooking gas, were also widespread, rendering 30 out of 71 bakeries inoperable and leading to water rationing throughout the strip.

Pascoe noted that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had spoken with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Livni last week.

While the secretary-general had condemned the rocket fire, he had stressed that Israel must itself uphold humanitarian principles, Pascoe said.