France votes to recognise a Palestinian State in major diplomatic blow to Israel

French lawmakers have called upon the government to recognise a Palestinian state.

The move comes weeks after Sweden became the first major European country to take a similar step in the hope that it will speed up the peace process with Israel.

The National Assembly in Paris approved with 339 votes to 151 a non-binding text urging the government "to recognise the state of Palestine in view of reaching a definitive settlement to the conflict."

The motion was proposed by the Socialist Party of President Francois Hollande, who had previously voiced his support for the international recognition of a Palestinian state.

The diplomatically hot potato has now been passed to the government, which is the body entitled with the power of recognising foreign states and has the final say.

In November, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned French MPs they were about to make "a grave mistake".

"The State of Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people, the only state that we have, and the Palestinians demanding a state do not want to recognise the right to have a state for the Jewish people," he told France 24.

Since the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) unilaterally declared the independence of Palestine in 1988, 135 of the 193 UN member states have recognised it as a state.

France, a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council, was among the 13 EU states that backed a decision to upgrade Palestinian territories' status to non-member "observer state" at the UN General Assembly, in November 2012.