Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Friday handed over a historic request to UN chief Ban Ki-moon asking the United Nations to admit the state of Palestine as a full member, UN officials said.

Abbas handed over the request in a folder adorned with the Palestinian eagle crest on the front in Ban's third floor meeting room. The UN secretary general opened the folder briefly to study it.

Reaction from Israel was swift, saying the Jewish state regrets the move.

"We regret the step," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman Gidi Shmerling said. "We believe that the only path to true peace is through negotiations and not unilateral steps."

Cheers of victory

Tens of thousands of Palestinians erupted into cheers of victory across the West Bank as their president handed over a request for full membership in the United Nations.

In central Ramallah, Arafat Square roared its approval with whistles and raucous cheering when an announcer told the crowd president Mahmud Abbas had formally handed the request to UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

"Abbas we are your people and you truly make us raise our heads high," they shouted. "With our souls and our blood, we will defend Palestine!"

Similar sights played out across the rest of the West Bank, where tens of thousands of people turned out to watch Abbas's speech on huge television screens set up in the city centres.

"There are tens of thousands of people who are now in the centre of the main cities like Ramallah, Hebron and Nablus," security services spokesman Adnan Damiri told AFP.

Waving their national flag, the exuberant crowd chanted "Palestine 194" in reference to their bid to become the 194th member state of the United Nations.

But as Abbas went up to the UN podium to address the General Assembly, the crowds fell silent.

Near the Muqataa, Abbas's presidential headquarters in Ramallah, flags of the more than 125 nations that have recognised a Palestinian state flew in a circle around a Palestinian flag.

In the southern city of Hebron, the municipality building was draped with a three-metre (10-foot) poster of Abbas and "Palestine 194," and similar decorations were hung in the northern cities of Nablus and Jenin.

At flashpoints across the West Bank, including in east Jerusalem, clashes broke out between Palestinians, Jewish settlers and Israeli troops.

In Qusra village south of Nablus, a Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli troops in clashes that erupted after settlers attacked the village, Palestinian hospital sources told AFP.

Issam Badran, 37, died after being hit in the neck by a live bullet, they said, while another three Palestinians were lightly wounded by rubber bullets.

Elsewhere, clashes were reported between Israeli soldiers and stonethrowers at the Qalandia checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem, as well as at a weekly protest in Nabi Saleh some 15 kilometres (nine miles) further north.

Palestinian state television carried wall-to-wall coverage of the diplomatic drama playing out in New York, running continuous interviews with local politicians and a series of slick adverts backing the UN membership push.

One featured a jigsaw puzzle of the globe as depicted in the UN logo -- with a missing piece. From the side of the screen, a piece in the colours of the Palestinian flag flies across and slots into place, completing the puzzle.

The three main Palestinian newspapers dedicated their front pages to the campaign, and the inside pages were dotted with paid adverts from individuals and businesses expressing their support.

"The president delivers his speech to the General Assembly and presents a request for recognition of the state of Palestine," read the headline in Al-Quds newspaper, emblazoned over pictures of pro-bid demonstrations.

Another cartoon in the paper used the famous image of US soldiers raising their flag during the battle of Iwo Jima, replacing the US flag with the Palestinian one and the soldiers with Palestinians, some in traditional garb.

Al-Ayyam's headline read: "The president presents a request for full membership for Palestine in front of the world," while on the back, a cartoon showed Abbas at the UN podium shouting into a loudspeaker: "Freedom for Palestine."

In the Gaza Strip, however, life was continuing as normal with no sign of any activity to mark the UN bid, which has not been backed by the territory's Hamas rulers.

Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya denounced the move in remarks to reporters after Friday prayers.

"What we see happening in the halls of the United Nations is an affront to the dignity of the Palestinian people," he said. "The Palestinian people do not beg for their state."