AFP - The United Nations said Tuesday it has no plans to break the Israeli sea blockade of the Gaza Strip but would weigh all legal options to deliver badly needed supplies to the besieged Palestinian population.

Farhan Haq, a UN spokesman, made the remarks to AFP in reaction to reported comments by John Ging, a top Gaza-based UN official, suggesting that the international community should look for ways to send aid ships to break the siege.

"The United Nations has no plans to use sea routes in Gaza, but will consider all legal options available to bring in assistance and commercial supplies," he noted.

Haq said the UN was working with the Israeli government to use land crossings.

"Some recent progress has been achieved in facilitating a number of priority UN projects and expanding the list of commercial goods allowed into Gaza," he added. "However, much more must be done to meet Gaza's urgent needs, and the UN will continue to press for this objective."

Ging, head of Gaza operations for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), reportedly told a Norwegian newspaper that the world should send ships to Gaza and suggested that Israeli authorities would not stop the vessels because the sea is open.

Last month, the UNRWA official already said a recent easing of the Israeli blockade of Gaza was welcome but not enough to meet the huge needs of the Palestinian enclave's 1.5 million people.

Israel on April 4 allowed the first commercial shipment of clothes and shoes into Gaza since 2008 but said its policy towards the territory's Hamas rulers had not changed.

Israel has said the border closures, which keep out all but vital aid, are necessary to prevent Hamas from rebuilding its military infrastructure in Gaza and to pressure it to release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured in 2006.

During his tour of Gaza in March, UN chief Ban Ki-moon slammed the Israeli blockade, saying it was causing "unacceptable suffering."