Netanyahu stakes claim to West Bank settlement

Israel's prime minister today declared his country would retain parts of the West Bank forever - a statement sure to provoke Palestinians and complicate the year-old peace mission of a visiting US envoy.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid claim to the disputed territory just hours after meeting with George Mitchell, the US's Middle East envoy. Mitchell has been shuttling between Israeli and Palestinian leaders since late last week in hopes of breaking a deadlock over Israeli settlement construction.

"Our message is clear: We are planting here, we will stay here, we will build here, this place will be an inseparable part of the state of Israel for eternity," Mr Netanyahu proclaimed at a tree-planting ceremony celebrating the Jewish arbor day at a settlement just south of Jerusalem.

Mr Netanyahu's participation in tree-planting ceremonies in two West Bank settlements were an apparent attempt to soothe Jewish settlers who vehemently oppose his decision - taken under intense US pressure - to slow West Bank construction.

Both settlements lie within areas Israel wants to keep in any final agreement with the Palestinians.

On the eve of Mitchell's arrival last week, Netanyahu said Israel would want to retain a presence in the West Bank even if a peace deal is reached with the Palestinians in order to protect Israel's heartland from missile attacks by militants.

The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank and east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, for a future independent state and say settlements undermine this goal. They have refused to resume peacemaking until all settlement construction stops, something Netanyahu has refused to do.

Following his meeting with Mitchell, Netanyahu told his Cabinet he had heard "a few interesting ideas" on renewing peace talks. The US official later left Jerusalem for another meeting later in the day with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in neighbouring Jordan.

Abbas' aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh said Mr Netanyahu's tree-planting Sunday undermined peace prospects.

"This is an unacceptable act that destroys all the efforts being exerted by Senator Mitchell in order to bring the parties back to the negotiating table," he said.

Contacts with the Americans would continue, he said, but a return to negotiations with Israel appeared unlikely anytime soon.

In a meeting with Mr Mitchell on Friday, Mr Abbas stood firm by his demand for a total settlement freeze. Mr Netanyahu has imposed some restrictions on construction in the West Bank, but has not ended it. And he hasn't put any limits on building in east Jerusalem, home to sacred Jewish, Muslim and Christian sites and claimed by the Palestinians as their future capital.

Israel annexed east Jerusalem shortly after capturing it along with the West Bank from Jordan in 1967.

Today, nearly 200,000 Israelis live in Jewish neighbourhoods built in east Jerusalem. The international community does not recognise the annexation and views the neighbourhoods to be settlements.

Last year, US President Barack Obama took office with the ambitious aim of putting Mideast peacemaking on a fast track. Instead, the peace mission has stalled over Israel's settlements on occupied lands and the refusal by the Palestinians to return to peace talks.

Mr Obama acknowledged last week that he underestimated the domestic political forces at play in the region and overreached in expecting a quick breakthrough.

Mr Netanyahu heads a coalition largely opposed to the sweeping territorial concessions that would be necessary to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians.

He himself had long refused to endorse the concept of Palestinian statehood, doing so only in June under intense US pressure. But he has given no indication about what concessions he's prepared to make.

The Palestinians fear that Washington's inability to get Israel to even temporarily freeze settlement construction forecasts doom for Israeli concessions on tougher issues like partitioning Jerusalem.

Abbas is also worried his already battered standing among the Palestinian people would suffer further if he resumes talks without a settlement freeze.

The Palestinian leader is locked in a fierce rivalry with Islamic Hamas militants who overran the Gaza Strip in 2007 and believe only violence, not negotiations, will pressure Israel to yield war-won land.