Israeli officials said they would press on with plans this week to build 6,000 homes for settlers on land claimed by Palestinians, defying criticism from Western powers who fear the move will hit already faint hopes for a peace accord.

Stung by the de facto recognition of Palestinian sovereignty in a UN General Assembly vote last month, Israel announced it would expand settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

An Israeli Interior Ministry planning committee on Monday gave preliminary approval for 1,500 new homes in the Ramat Shlomo settlement.

The panel will now start discussing plans for another 4,500 homes in two other settlements, Givat Hamatos and Gilo, in back-to-back sessions that could run into next week, ministry spokesman Efrat Orbach said yesterday.

Israel counts the three settlements as part of its Jerusalem municipality though they are on West Bank land seized in the 1967 Middle East war.

Palestinians see the settlements as obstacles to achieving a viable state with a capital in East Jerusalem.

“Settlement activity is unilateral and is completely adverse to the continued viability of a two-state solution and the possibility for our people to continue to exist,” Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told Reuters on Monday.

Most countries deem the settlements illegal and Western powers have been especially troubled by Israel’s declared intent to build in E-1, a wedge of land between East Jerusalem and the West Bank where it had previously held off under US pressure.

Yesterday, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton joined the chorus of condemnation, saying in a statement the bloc was “deeply dismayed ­­­by and strongly opposes” the Israeli plans.

Israel says the future Palestine’s border should be set in direct negotiations, from which Abbas withdrew two years ago in protest against the settlements.

Israeli officials have accused him of avoiding new talks to avoid having to compromise and because his authority does not extend to the other Palestinian territory, Gaza, which is under rival Hamas Islamists hostile to the Jewish state.