Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Thursday that Israel was endangering the peace process by refusing to respect its commitment to halt West Bank settlement.
"We need efficient international action in order to change the status quo and to put pressure on Israel to respect its obligations in accordance with the (US-backed) Road Map for peace initiative," Fayyad told said during a visit to France.
Fayyad, who met with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, added that "the basis for settling the (Israeli-Palestinan) conflict should be international law."
Kouchner, for his part, said that the establishment of a Palestinian state was a "shared goal" and that "the upcoming Israeli elections and the election of a new administration in Washington should not serve as excuses to halt the peace process."
Also on Thursday, Tzipi Livni met with outgoing American President George W. Bush at the United Nations headquarters in New York. The Israeli foreign minister said the world must remember that Bush put the peace talks on the right track after years of terror.
Yitzhak Benhorin contributed to the report