Israel said yesterday it will take part in a UN investigation into a raid by Israeli commandos on a Gaza-bound flotilla in which nine Turkish activists were killed. The move allowed UN head Ban Ki-moon to announce the creation of a panel that would investigate the confrontation after activists tried to breach Israel's three-year blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The decision marks a departure for Israel, which has frequently viewed the United Nations with suspicion and accused many U.N. bodies of being unfairly biased against the Jewish state.

"Israel has nothing to hide. The opposite is true. It is in Israel's national interest to ensure that the factual truth about the entire flotilla incident will be brought to light and the entire world, and that is precisely the principle we are promoting," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

Israel refused to cooperate with an earlier investigation into last year's war in the Gaza Strip conducted by the U.N. Human Rights Council, which it accuses of disproportionately focusing on Israel. The inquiry concluded that Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers both committed war crimes.