Netanyahu firm on settlement row

ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton there would be no extension of an Israeli moratorium on settlement construction that expires at the end of the month, his office said yesterday.

"It is impossible to take the issue of settlements in the West Bank, which is an issue for the permanent agreement and deal with it separately at the beginning of the direct talks," a statement from his office quoted Netanyahu as telling Clinton during their meeting last Tuesday.

The Palestinians say that a renewal of settlement activities after September 26, when a ten-month partial moratorium expires, would end the negotiations.

"Israel does not condition its participation in the talks on regaining control of the Gaza Strip or rehabilitating West Bank refugee camps to find a solution for refugees outside Israel's borders," he said referring to other thorny issues at the heart of the talks.

"We are not looking for excuses to stop the negotiations. The opposite, we came here to find a real solution without preconditions," the statement quoted him as saying. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in comments published Wednesday that Israel must extend a settlement moratorium for negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders to succeed.

Mubarak, who is in Washington to attend the launch of direct talks between Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Thursday, also called for international peacekeepers in a future Palestinian state.AFP