NITED NATIONS, Sept. 24 — The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution before dawn today demanding that Israel lift the five-day siege of Yasir Arafat's compound in Ramallah, but Israel took no action, saying it had "difficulty in accepting" elements in the measure.
Israel's defiance, despite worldwide criticism of its confinement of Mr. Arafat, the Palestinian leader, created new troubles for the Bush administration as it tried to mobilize support here this week for a Council resolution to enforce past resolutions on Iraq.
Israeli officials said they would not comply with the resolution until the Palestinians took action.
"Since the Palestinian Authority definitely not only is not arresting terrorists but actually aiding and abetting them," said Raanan Gissin, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, "then it is highly unlikely that we could unilaterally fulfill our part of the resolution."
President Bush reiterated that the Israeli operation in Ramallah was "not helpful" for United States efforts to promote Palestinian reform.
"As we fight terror, particularly in the Middle East, they've got to build the institutions necessary for a Palestinian state," he said after a cabinet meeting in Washington today.
But the United States abstained from voting on the resolution, which contained an unusually strong rebuke of Israel. It passed in the early morning by a vote of 14 in favor and none against, after a long day of debate and a long night of negotiations aimed at averting an American veto.
The abstention demonstrated that Washington was sticking to its position of not supporting any measure on Israel that does not name names of Palestinian groups it calls terrorist, or that requires Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian areas it has occupied since 2000 while attacks inside Israel continue. That position, forcefully advocated by the American envoy to the United Nations, John D. Negroponte, has become known as the Negroponte Doctrine.
Washington abstained to make a point to wary Arab nations, which were looking to see if the United States would curry their support on Iraq by softening its backing of Mr. Sharon's military assault on Mr. Arafat.
Written by European countries forging a compromise between drafts by Syria and the United States, the measure demands that Israel immediately end the occupation of Mr. Arafat's compound and "cease measures in and around Ramallah including the destruction of Palestinian civilian and security infrastructure."
It also demands that the Palestinian Authority prosecute terrorists. In an effort at balance, it mentions two recent suicide bombings in Israel as well as the bombing at a Palestinian school in Hebron on Sept. 17.
Palestinian and Arab leaders hailed the resolution, pleased that the United States had let it go through. Marwan Muasher, the foreign minister of Jordan, said in Washington today that the United States sent "a clear message that it also is not happy with the way Israel has been conducting its affairs."
In casting its abstention, the United States described the resolution as flawed because it did not include the names of the groups that claimed responsibility for recent suicide bombings — Islamic Jihad for the attack on a bus at Umm al Fahm on Sept. 18, and Hamas for bombing a bus in Tel Aviv on Sept. 19.
Diplomats from Syria, the Council member that called for the emergency session Monday, rejected any mention of Hamas as a terrorist organization. The group has a headquarters in Damascus.
The United States wanted the Council to "assume its responsibilities and take a clear stand against the actions of these terrorist groups and to call for action against them," said Ambassador James Cunningham, the United States deputy here.