A second round of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians ended in disagreement on Monday with the Palestinians calling Israeli settlement building illegal, a top Palestinian negotiator said.
"This is illegal because the 'road map' (peace plan) stipulates that you
should stop all settlement activity, including natural growth," the
n
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egotiator, Saeb Erekat, said after the session.
The Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams met Monday for the second time since the regional peace conference held last month in Annapolis, Maryland.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said Monday there would be no progress in the recently revived peace talks with Israel until Jerusalem halts all settlement activity.
"There will be one item on the agenda - demanding from Israel to cease settlement [expansion]," said al-Malki.
"We won't proceed a single step during negotiations with Israel without reaching an agreement on complete and comprehensive cessation for settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territories," al-Malki said.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised Sunday to do everything possible to make the negotiations successful.
"The cabinet is maximizing its efforts to reignite the political process to bring an ultimate end to the peace process with the Palestinians," he said.
Nevertheless, Army Radio reported on Monday that associates of the prime minister have said they are pessimistic about the chances of reaching a permanent settlement with the Palestinians by the end of 2008 - a goal set by U.S. President George Bush at the summit last month.
Meanwhile, Israel's plans to build housing units east of the Green Line, despite its recent promises to freeze settlement construction, have drawn sharp criticism from the U.S. and the Palestinian Authority.
The Housing Ministry's proposed budget for 2008, announced Sunday, includes funding for the construction of 500 apartments in the Har Homa neighborhood in East Jerusalem as well as 240 apartments in the nearby settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said earlier this month that Israel's construction plans undermine efforts achieved in Annapolis.
He appealed to to the United States to compel Israel to halt the expansion of settlements in the West Bank as dictated by the road map peace plan.
"We loudly ask the U.S. administration to act as the judge and compel Israel to implement its commitments which the Road Map plan specified," Erekat told Voice of Palestine radio.
"If Israel went on, this will destroy all the efforts that aim at launching a meaningful peace process leading to ending the Israeli occupation which started in the 1967," Erekat added.
His comments came a day after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, after meeting with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, said, "I've made clear that we're in a time when the goal is to build maximum confidence between the parties, and this doesn't help to build confidence."
Government officials said, however, that there is no tension between Israel and the U.S. over Har Homa.
In response to Rice's criticism in early December, Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim said, "Secretary of State Rice should be blessed for her efforts in the relaunching of the peace process," Boim said, "but it cannot be that on every occasion this [peace process] will be tied together with the cessation of construction in Jerusalem."
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