Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet his French counterpart Friday to discuss the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations.

France is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

His arrival in France comes at the conclusion of a three-country Latin American tour intended to shore up support for the bid.

Abbas made the bid for the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state last month, a move Israel says is premature without direct talks that address its longstanding security concerns.

A U.N. committee is expected to issue a report on its analysis of the historic Palestinian bid soon.

If a majority of the committee says the prospective Palestinian state fulfills the U.N. charter's requirements, it will send the application back to the full Security Council for a vote.

The Palestinians would then need nine of 15 votes in their favor, and no veto from any of the five countries that are permanent members of the Security Council.

U.S. officials have vowed to block the measure, though they most likely want to avoid an American veto out of concern over a potential backlash across the Middle East.

The General Assembly, however, could still vote to upgrade the status of Palestinians, who currently hold the status of nonvoting observer "entity." The body could change that status to permanent observer "state," identical to the Vatican's standing at the United Nations.

Abbas' effort to gain U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state is also opposed by Hamas, the Palestinian organization that controls Gaza.

In Latin American, Abbas visited the Dominican Republic, El Salavador and Colombia.