The United Nations panel investigating Israel's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla faces a major stalemate, with Turkey threatening to drop out over wording in a draft report that it sees as favouring the Israeli view.
The Turkish website Hurriyet Daily News reports that the draft wording falls short of saying Israel violated international law in the raid last year.
It says this has delayed the announcement of the panel's findings.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon set up the panel after Israeli soldiers raided the Mavi Marmara, the lead ship of an international flotilla trying to breach Israel's blockade of the Gaza strip, on 31 May, 2010.
Eight Turks and one American of Turkish descent died in the incident.
Relations between Turkey and Israel have been strained ever since.
The panel is led by Sir Geoffrey Palmer, former New Zealand prime minister and an expert in international maritime law.
Israel, in an unprecedented move, agreed to cooperate with the four-person panel, which includes one representative each from Turkey and Israel.
The panel was expected to make its findings public this month.
The first draft of the panel's report, which was handed to both sides prior to making it public, infuriated Turkey, which threatened to disassociate itself from the report unless radical changes were made.
The Daily News reports that the panel seems to be operating from the premise that Israel's maritime blockade on Gaza does not breach international law.
This premise weakens Turkey's argument that Israel violated international law by attacking the flotilla in international waters.
There is ongoing debate in the international arena on whether Israel's blockade is lawful.
The first draft does, however, accuse Israel of resorting to excessive use of violence that led to the death of the nine Turkish nationals.
It asks Israel to pay compensation, one of the two conditions Turkey demanded be fulfilled to normalize ties with Israel.
The early version of the draft does not include a call on Israel to apologize, which is Ankara's second condition.
The Turkish government blames behind-the-scenes interference from the United States for the outcome that it believes lets Israel off the hook.
