Mahmud Abbas has urged other countries to follow Sweden's lead.

AFP/Gaza

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas on Thursday hailed a decision by Sweden to officially recognise the state of Palestine, his spokesman said.

"President Abbas welcomes Sweden's decision," Nabil Abu Rudeina said, adding the Palestinian leader described the move as "brave and historic".

Abu Rudeina claimed the move was linked to months of soaring tensions in occupied east Jerusalem, where Palestinians have clashed almost daily with Israeli police and where Israel has recently pushed ahead with plans to build another 3,600 settler homes, drawing international condemnation.

"This decision comes as a response to Israeli measures in Jerusalem," he said.

Abbas called for other countries to follow Sweden's lead.

"All countries of the world that are still hesitant to recognise our right to an independent Palestinian state based on 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital, (should) follow Sweden's lead," his spokesman quoted him as saying.

Earlier on Thursday, Sweden officially recognised Palestine, less than a month after the government announced its intention to make the controversial move.

"Today the government takes the decision to recognise the state of Palestine," Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said in a statement published in the Dagens Nyheter daily.

"It is an important step that confirms the Palestinians' right to self-determination," she said, adding that "we hope that this will show the way for others."

Sweden's new Prime Minister Stefan Loefven announced in his inaugural address to parliament in early October that his country would become the first EU member in western Europe to recognise a Palestinian state.

While the Palestinians cheered the move, Israel summoned Sweden's ambassador to protest and express disappointment.

Israel has long insisted that the Palestinians can only receive their promised state through direct negotiations and not through other diplomatic channels.

Seven EU members in eastern European and the Mediterranean have already recognised a Palestinian state - Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Romania. Non-EU member Iceland is the only other western European nation to have done so.

The US cautioned Sweden against recognition, calling it "premature" and saying the Palestinian state could only come through a negotiated solution between Israelis and Palestinians.

In Thursday's announcement, Sweden's foreign minister said that "the government considers that international law criteria for recognition of a Palestinian state have been fulfilled."

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