After agreeing to the inquiry, the Israeli government abruptly reversed course when Secretary General Kofi Annan named the members of the mission. He selected former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari to lead the team, along with Sadako Ogata, former UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and Cornelio Sommaruga, former head of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

A UN spokesman said Annan had no plans to meet with a delegation of Israeli officials dispatched to New York to discuss their government's U-turn and explain why it opposes three international figures famous for their personal humanitarianism and defense of human rights. Kieran Prendergast, the undersecretary for political affairs and ranking Briton in the secretariat, would receive the visiting Israelis, spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

Meanwhile, he reported that the Ahtisaari mission proposed to arrive in the Middle East Saturday and affirmed that its mandate was that set out in a Security Council resolution adopted unanimously last Friday. With US support, this called for an investigation into events at the Jenin camp, where 15,000 Palestinians lived. It was invaded by Israeli troops who conducted house-to-house searches, ostensibly to track down terrorists. Heavy casualties were reported in the subsequent clashes.

UN officials who visited Jenin after the Israelis withdrew told of scenes of applaling devastation and said many bodies were unburied. Israel rejoined that the Palestinians were urged by rights groups to leave the corpses, for political reasons and to gain international sympathy.

Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in Geneva Wednesday that up to 5,000 Palestinians were reported to have lost their homes in the Israeli attacks and that refugees may have been used by some Israeli soldiers as human shields.

Robinson, a former president of Ireland, has been barred by Israel from visiting the disputed area. After the Security Council called for the fact-finding mission, the Israelis were reported to have cautioned Annan not to even think of including Robinson or two top UN officials working in the region. He told reporters it was not his intention, anyway.

In a report submitted Wednesday to the UN Commission on Human Rights, Robinson said, "There needs to be accountability on all sides for what has happened, as well as steps to ensure that in future proper rules and safeguards are in place to prevent violations of the human rights of both peoples, Palestinians and Israelis."

Failure to investigate and seek accountability "for widespread allegations of serious human rights violations" risked undermining the integrity of the international rights system, she said.

Israel's stated objection to the Ahtisaari mission was that it lacked an adequate military component. Retired US Major General William Nash was named by Annan to be the military adviser, but Ahtisaari, as chairman, said the team was not hierarchical and that Nash was considered a full member. Eckhard said a second military person was being added and that the composition of the team was not necessarily complete.

Legal and medical experts were named Wednesday after the Israelis began airing their misgivings.