Palestinians: stop all settlements and we'll talk

RAMALLAH, West Bank - If Israel is serious about peace, it must call a complete halt to settlement building

'Netanyahu is responsible for stopping the negotiations'

Israel urged to halt all illegal settlement activity as settlers make up for lost time in construction.

and not just limit the freeze to the West Bank, a Palestinian official said Monday.

Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu is currently weighing plans for a fresh ban on West Bank settlement building in exchange for a package of US political and security guarantees in a move which US President Barack Obama said was "a signal that he is serious."

But the proposed 90-day freeze would only halt the construction in the West Bank and not in occupied east Jerusalem, in a formula which the Palestinians say does not go far enough.

"If Netanyahu stops the settlements, we will go back to direct negotiations," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP, referring to a comprehensive ban on settlement construction on all occupied Palestinian land.

Obama, he said, was very much aware that the Israeli leader held the key to salvaging the peace talks.

"President Obama knows very well that Netanyahu is responsible for stopping the negotiations," he told AFP.

"He also knows very well that Netanyahu has the key to the negotiations, and that he has closed the door to negotiations and chosen settlements not peace," he said.

David Hale, assistant to US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, was to discuss the idea with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah later on Monday, an official source said.

Until now, the Palestinians have refused to continue talking without a fresh ban on settlement construction, a move which Israel has so far refused to consider.

The Palestinians see the settlements as a major threat to the establishment of a viable state, and they view the freezing of settlement activity as a crucial test of Israel's intentions.

Any new ban on settlement building must be "comprehensive," a spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Sunday, indicating it must include east Jerusalem.

"The Palestinians are committed to the decision of the Arab monitoring committee for a comprehensive freeze for the resumption of negotiations," Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP, referring to a ban which would encompass settlement activity in both the West Bank and in occupied east Jerusalem.

Settlers have begun building new homes at a furious pace since the end of a construction freeze, a new report revealed on Sunday.

Figures published by Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now showed that in the seven weeks since the end of the moratorium on West Bank construction, Jewish settlers have started building 1,649 new homes -- more than making up for the 10-month ban.

"It turns out that the settlement freeze was no more than a 10-month delay in the construction and the settlers managed to fill in the gap very fast," Peace Now said.

"The government of Israel must renew the freeze in a way that will stop all settlement activity, including the projects that started in the last few weeks, until there is a final agreement between the Palestinians and Israel regarding the borders and the future of the settlements."

Figures in the report show the building work was carried out in 63 settlements and, in more than two-thirds of cases, settlers had begun laying the foundations of their new homes.

During 2009, construction work began on 1,888 new housing units, the report said, citing data from Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics.

"Had the construction continued at the same speed without the freeze, work would have begun on 1,574 units during the 10 months of the moratorium," Peace Now said.

"In the six weeks since the end of the moratorium, the settlers have managed to start construction on a similar number of units."