Israel has decided against setting up an independent panel to investigate the military's conduct last year in Gaza, instead calling on the U.S. to prevent the issue from advancing further at the United Nations.

Israel is under pressure to launch a probe after the United Nations Human Rights Council last week endorsed a UN report accusing Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza, during the Dec. 27-Jan. 18 conflict that resulted in almost 1,400 Palestinian and 13 Israeli deaths.

The report recommended establishing war crimes proceedings if Israel did not conduct its own internal review.

But Defence Minister Ehud Barak reportedly refused to allow the issue to be addressed during a cabinet meeting Tuesday, according to meeting participants.

Instead, cabinet ministers established a lobbying team to urge the U.S. to use its veto power on the Security Council to prevent legal action against Israeli officials.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hasn't decided whether a commission of inquiry should be formed. He initially opposed such a panel and questioned the report's findings, saying they encouraged terrorism.

Former South African judge Richard Goldstone was commissioned to write the report by the UN Human Rights Council, which Israel perceives as being hostile.

The 575-page Goldstone report accuses both Israelis and Palestinians of war crimes. It concluded that Israel used disproportionate force, deliberately targeted civilians, used Palestinians as human shields and destroyed civilian infrastructure during its incursion into the Gaza Strip to root out Palestinian rocket squads.

It also accused Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas, of deliberately targeting civilians and trying to spread terror through rocket attacks on southern Israel.

Both sides of the conflict have rejected the war crimes allegations found in the report.