Rice: Israeli settlement building may harm negotiations

VIDEO - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday Israel's continued settlement building could hurt Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

Video courtesy of infolive.tv  

"I am very concerned that at a time when we need to build confidence between the parties, the continued building and the settlement activity has the potential to harm the negotiations going forward," Rice said during a meeting with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Jerusalem.

Prior to the meeting the secretary of state told reporters that "while the issue of settlement construction may hinder the peace process, we have to bring the attacks on Israeli citizens to a stop. There is a lot we have to discuss."

In response to Rice's statement Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said, "It's clear to everyone that the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem will remain part of Israel in any possible final status agreement."

"Building inside those Jewish neighborhoods in no way contradicts our commitment to move forward in the peace process," he said.

Rice, on her sixth trip to the Middle East this year and the 17th in the past 24 months, is said to try and advance Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

She is also scheduled to meet with Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak  before leaving for the West Bank city of Ramallah, to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, his Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and the head of the Palestinian negotiating team, Ahmed Qureia.

Abbas is expected to ask Rice to pressure Israel to order settlement construction to stop. "The US has to apply real pressure on Israel, rather than settling for just making statements about it," an aide to Abbas told Ynet.

Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat added that "the Israeli statements are part of an ongoing policy of sabotaging the peace process. He urged Rice to make the settlements her top priority."

Reuters contributed to this report