Secretary -General Ban Ki-moon has sent Palestine’s application to become a United Nations Member State to the Security Council for its consideration .He received the bid from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas earlier on Saturday.Mr. Ban said he sent the application to Ambassador Nawaf Salam of Lebanon, which holds the Council presidency this month, in line with the provisions of the UN Charter. Palestine currently has observer status at the UN. Mr. Salam said he would convene Council members on Monday to hold consultations on the Palestinian application.Any application for UN membership is considered by the Council, which decides whether or not to recommend admission to the 193-memberGeneral Assembly, which then has to adopt a resolution for the admission of a Member State. Members of the Middle East diplomatic Quartet – comprising the UN, the European Union, Russia and the United States – met on Friday in New York and took note of the application. In a statement issued after their meeting, they reiterated appeals to the Israelis and Palestinians to resume direct bilateral negotiations without delays or preconditions.Earlier, in his address to the Assembly’s annual general debate, Mr. Abbas said the application for full membership of the UN is on the basis of the so-called 4 June 1967 borders. Mr. Abbas said that Israeli Government policies were responsible ‘for the continued failure of the successive international attempts to salvage the peace process.