High court justice Dahlia Dorner issued the temporary injunction in response to an appeal by a group of Israelis, who claimed a government attempt to close offices in Orient House was an election ploy by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

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The injunction delays any police move to close the offices by at least seven days, meaning no action can be taken before the first round of Israeli elections on Monday.

US State Department spokesman James P Rubin said: "It appears that a confrontation has been avoided and we welcome that."

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The decision is likely to diffuse tensions in the last days of the campaign, but will prove a setback for Mr Netanyahu who wanted to project a tough image to voters with immediate closure.

The judge also ordered Israel's police minister Avigdor Kahalani and Palestinian officials to explain within seven days why they had failed to achieve a compromise.

Palestinian officials had already rejected Israeli demands to close the offices and had threatened violence if Israeli security forces tried to enforce the order.

A deadline of 1600GMT on Tuesday had been set by Israel for closure of the office.

Jawad Boulos, a lawyer for Orient House, had condemned the closure orders as illegitimate.

"We refuse any effort to impose Israeli law on the activities of Orient House, which is legally governed only by accords between Israel and the PLO," he said.

The Israeli Government says Orient House is operating in breach of Palestinian commitments to refrain from political activity in Jerusalem during the interim period of the Oslo peace process.