Controversial move endorsed in UN cultural agency vote despite US threat of withholding £50m in funds

The United States has cut off funds to Unesco as a punitive action after the Palestinian Authority was accepted into the UN agency as a full member in defiance of American, Israeli and European pressure.

The overwhelming backing for the Palestinians' bid to join the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation was a huge boost for their campaign for international recognition of an independent state, and a blow to Israel and the US, who had opposed the move.

Members voted by 107 votes to 14 to accept Palestine as a full member state to loud cheers from delegates in Paris. Fifty-two countries, including the UK, abstained.

Within hours, the US announced it would withhold its huge contribution to Unesco's budget as a result of the vote. State department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the US had no choice due to a 21-year-old law prohibiting the payment of funds to any UN body accepting the Palestinians as full members.

A $60m (£38m) transfer that was due later this month would be halted in a move that will have serious consequences for Unesco activities. The US contributes 22% of the agency's annual budget.

Unesco's decision was "regrettable, premature and undermines our shared goal to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace [between Israelis and Palestinians]", said Nuland.

Israel also hinted at punitive measures. A statement from the foreign ministry said it would "consider its further steps and ongoing co-operation" with Unesco following the decision. The move was a "unilateral Palestinian manoeuvre which will bring no change on the ground but further removes the possibility for a peace agreement", it added.

Nimrod Barkan, Israel's ambassador to Unesco, described the vote as a "tragedy". "Unesco deals in science, not science fiction. They forced on Unesco a political subject out of its competence," he said.

Palestinian officials, who described the vote as historic, were jubilant. "This vote will erase a tiny part of the injustice done to the Palestinian people," foreign minister Riyad al-Malk told the Unesco gathering in Paris.

The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said the vote "represents support for freedom and justice".

In a statement to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, he said: "This vote is for the sake of peace and represents international consensus on support for the legitimate Palestinian national rights of our people, the foremost of which is the establishment of its independent state."

Some ridiculed the US response. "You would think we were asking to be accepted by al-Qaida," senior official Nabil Shaath said before the vote.

The swift action of the US in withdrawing funding is likely to increase cynicism among Palestinians about the credibility of the US as a mediator between them and the Israelis.

Membership of Unesco is largely symbolic, although it will allow the Palestinian Authority to seek world heritage status for historical sites. Israel would be expected to vigorously object to applications for sites in areas of the West Bank and East Jerusalem currently under its control. The Palestinian Authority is expected to seek Unesco world heritage status for the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, believed to be the birthplace of Jesus.

A nomination attempt was rejected earlier this year because the Palestinians were not a full Unesco member. The nomination of other sites is expected to follow.

The vote was the first taken in a UN body since the Palestinians embarked on their campaign for recognition of an independent state in the international arena. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, submitted a formal application for full membership of the UN in September in defiance of US opposition.

The process has become mired in UN bureaucracy after the security council set up a subcommittee to examine the application. No date has been set for a decision, which is bound to go against the Palestinians as the US has pledged to veto the move.

The Palestinians may then take their case to the UN general assembly, which is barred from granting full membership without security council approval.

Monday's vote at the Unesco general conference is an indication of the extent of support for the Palestinian case in the international community.

France was among those voting in the Palestinians' favour, a move which could indicate its as yet unstated stance in the forthcoming security council vote on full membership of the UN.

The UK has not declared its voting intentions but is expected to line up with the US.

Others countries that voted in favour included China, Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa. The US, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands voted against. US and European diplomats made unsuccessful efforts to seek a postponement of the Unesco vote in the runup to the debate at the general conference in Paris.

Despite US and EU insistence that negotiations are the only way to secure a lasting settlement and an independent Palestinian state, efforts led by the Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair to restart talks between the two parties have made little progress.

Palestinian negotiators have largely despaired of securing a state through talks with Israel while the latter continues to build and expand settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

They are also deeply disappointed in the lack of pressure exerted on Israel by the US. Many feel that taking the Palestinian cause into the international arena has a greater potential for progress.