Israel's Prime Minister slammed the international Middle East conference to be held in Paris on January 15 as "futile", saying he feared decisions taken there could spark a new UN resolution against Israel.

The conference to be organised at the initiative of French President Francois Hollande is to be attended by some 70 countries -- but not by Israeli or Palestinian representatives. France’s objective with this confab is to reiterate international support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reignite Israeli-Palestinian talks.

"This is a futile conference, but there are signs that there will be attempts to use decisions that are taken to vote a new UN resolution against Israel," Netanyahu said at an annual meeting with Israeli ambassadors to European countries at the foreign ministry in Jerusalem.

"That's why the main political effort we are currently working on is to avoid a vote for a new resolution at the UN Security Council," he said.

‘’We are investing a great deal of diplomatic efforts in this, and this also has to be your main efforts in the coming days,’’ he said, adding: “This will not take much time, but it will occupy us in the next two weeks, and we need to succeed.”

Israeli leaders have chosen not to support the French led conference on 15 January due to concerns that multi-lateral forums will further discourage the Palestinian Authority from direct talks with Israel to reach a negotiated agreement to the conflict.

On December 23, the United Nations Security Council voted a resolution that called for Israel to stop settlement building when the United States did not use its veto and abstained in the vote for the first time since 1979.

Netanyahu rejected the resolution at the time as a "shameful blow against Israel".

Last month, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman labeled the upcoming Middle East peace conference in Paris a “scheme” designed to hurt Israel’s reputation and likened it to the infamous trial of French Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus.