RAMALLAH - The Palestinian leadership doesn' t want to boycott the United States, which vetoed a draft  to the UN condemning Jewish settlement activities in the occupied territories, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday.

"It is not for our interest to boycott the US administration, " Abbas said during a meeting with Palestinian academics in his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Related readings:  US vetoes draft UN resolution condemning Israel  Abbas to stop anti-Israeli-settlement resolution

The veto was used on Friday against the Arab-endorsed draft resolution at the UN Security Council. The Palestinians wanted an international condemnation of the settlement building which caused US-brokered peace negotiations to suspend in September.

Abbas said the Palestinians had been preparing for the resolution since Israel resumed building settlements in the West Bank in September.

He said he had rejected intensive pressure from Washington to stop going to the UN to resolve the settlement issue. Over the past two days, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talked with Abbas via phone, but he insisted going ahead with the proposed resolution.

"The Palestinian diplomacy achieved a real victory" after 14 members of the Security Council voted for the resolution before the US envoy used the veto, Abbas noted.