UNITED NATIONS (Reuter) - The General Assembly begins an emergency special session Thursday on Israel's construction of a controversial housing project in East Jerusalem, captured in the 1967 Middle East war. It will be the fourth time a U.N. body has debated Israel's plan to build 6,500 homes for Jews at a site called Abu Ghneim in Arabic and Har Homa in Hebrew. The special session, expected to last two days, was requested by Arab states under a 1950 ``uniting for peace'' procedure that enables an issue considered a threat to peace to be transferred to the 185-member assembly if a veto prevents action by the 15-nation Security Council.

The United States used its veto twice last month to block council resolutions calling on Israel to abandon its decision to proceed with the widely criticised new settlement, which sparked Palestinian demonstrations. Most speakers said it harmed the faltering Middle East peace process by pre-empting so-called ``final status'' negotiations on Jerusalem and other thorny issues. They also said it violated the Fourth Geneva Convention, barring settlements in occupied territories. Israel, which regards all Jerusalem as its capital, said 75 percent of the construction site had been owned by Jews and that the project did not change the city's status. The United States, main sponsor of the peace negotiations, criticised Israel's action but said the United Nations was not the forum for dealing with issues that should be resolved in direct negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel.

On March 13, a non-emergency session of the General Asembly voted 130 to two, with two abstentions, for a resolution calling on Israel to abandon its plan. There is no veto in the Assembly, whose decisions are not binding. This will be only the 10th emergency special assembly session since 1950. The last one was in 1982, on the occupied Arab territories. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has been seeking support for a resolution demanding ``immediate and full cessation of the construction in Jabal Abu Ghneim'' and of all other Israeli settlement activities. The draft, still subject to change, would recommend that all countries bar any assistance to Israeli private or public establishments involved in settlement activities. A previous version of the text would also have recommended a ban on trade or financial dealings with such Israeli bodies. The draft would also recommend that signatories of the Fourth Geneva Convention ``take other legally appropriate measures, on a national or regional level,'' to ensure Israel respects the convention. Secretary-General Kofi Annan would be asked to ``monitor the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, through the dispatch of a team of United Nations observers and the use of available resources,'' and to submit a report within two months.