The United Nations’ outgoing Middle East envoy has accused the US of using undue pressure to impose a one-sided pro-Israeli agenda on diplomacy in the region and urged Ban Ki-Moon, UN secretary-general, to consider pulling out of the international peace Quartet.

In a hard-hitting confidential report, intended for internal UN consumption, Alvaro de Soto, a veteran Peruvian diplomat who quit his Jerusalem-based post in May, said the Bush administration had forced through an international boycott of the Hamas government that had devastating consequences for the Palestinian people.