UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The UN General Assembly demanded late Tuesday in a resolution that Israel "stop and reverse" construction of a wall in the West Bank which Israel claims it has been designed to prevent infiltration of Palestinian suicide bombers into Israel.

The resolution stating that the project contradicts international law passed by a vote of 144-4, with 12 countries abstaining.

But Israel on Wednesday vowed to continue building a 300 km-long apartheid wall deep into the West Bank UN resolution which condemned it as 'illegal expropriation of Palestinian lands.

"We will continue to build the wall, irrespective of what the UN and any other body says. We are responsible for our security, not anybody else," said Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. It said UN member-states were particularly concerned that the route chosen by Israel for the wall "could prejudge future negotiations and make the two-state solution physically impossible to implement and would cause further humanitarian hardship for the Palestinians."

The document calls on both Israel and the Palestinians to fulfill their obligations under the roadmap, a U.S.- and European-sponsored three-stage peace plan that provides for creating a Palestinian state by 2005.

It condemns suicide bombings and their recent intensification and urges the Palestinian Authority to "take visible efforts on the ground to arrest, disrupt, and restrain individuals and groups conducting and planning violent attacks" against Israel. Israel, for its part, is called upon not to take any action "undermining trust, including deportations and attacks on civilians and extra-judicial killings."

Voting against the resolution were Israel, the United States, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman said the adoption of the measure was "a disservice to the UN and the peace."

"As long as the majority follow this ritual, its no wonder the victims of terrorist look elsewhere to be protected," Gillerman said.

Palestinian Observer Nasser al Kidwa thanked members of the European Union for having submitted the resolution.

The resolution's nearly unanimous approval was also seen as a defeat for the United States after its October 14 veto of a simiar UN Security Council resolution. There was no comment from the US delegation after Tuesday's vote. The barrier, which will effectively cut off large swaths of fertile land and scores of villages from the rest of the West Bank, has been strongly criticized internationally. Even the United States has called it a "problem." Palestinians branded the barrier the "apartheid wall."

Meanwhile, a senior UN official gave the Security Council a grim picture of the situation in the Middle East, where violence has been on the rise and chances for a peaceful settlement look bleak.

"It is urgent to re-establish momentum toward a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East. Sadly, however, the trend is increasingly in the opposite direction," UN under secretary general for political affairs Kieran Prendergast said.

"Suicide bombings, rejectionist language, extra-judicial killings, walls that extend deep into the occupied Palestinian territory, destruction of homes, expropriations and continued settlement activities lead both Israeli and Palestinians to feelings of hopelessness, despair, hatred, rage and revenge," Prendergast added.

"The effect of actions taken by both Israelis and Palestinians has been to weaken moderates on both sides and to encourage extremists.

"It ought to be clear by now that violence only begets violence and that there is no military solution to the conflict," he stressed.

Prendergast mentioned the air raid in Syria on October 5, and rocket fire from Lebanese territory with one rocket falling in Israel. "The spiral of events of the first week of October illustrates the significant potential for escalation within the region."