UNITED NATIONS – (AFP) – Israel said Friday it regrets that Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has handed over a request to the United Nations to admit Palestine as a full member state.

“We regret the step,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman Gidi Shmerling told AFP. “We believe that the only path to true peace is through negotiations and not unilateral steps.”

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas hands over a formal letter to be admitted as a state to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon during the 66th UN General Assembly at the United Nations headquarters in New York, September 23, 2011. AFP PHOTO

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas had on Friday handed over a historic request to UN chief Ban Ki-moon asking the United Nations to admit the state of Palestine as a full member, UN officials said.

Abbas handed over the request in a folder with the Palestinian logo on the front in Ban’s meeting room. The UN secretary general opened the folder briefly to study it.