The leaders of six countries, including France, have moved to recognise Palestinian statehood at a high-level summit ahead of the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meeting in New York, writes Al Jazeera.

Alongside France, which co-convened the meeting with Saudi Arabia on Monday in New York, Andorra, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta and Monaco said they were recognising a Palestinian state.

Leaders from Australia, Canada, Portugal and the United Kingdom, which formally made the move to recognise Palestine a day earlier, also spoke at the meeting.

“We have gathered here because the time has come”, Macron said at the summit convened to revive the long-delayed two-state solution to end the Israel-Palestine conflict: “It falls on us, this responsibility, to do everything in our power to preserve the possibility of a two-state solution. Today, I declare that France recognises the state of Palestine”.

The additional countries recognising Palestine now join some 147 of the 193 UN member states that had already formally recognised Palestinian statehood as of April this year.