(dpa) - Israel will continue building in Jewish suburbs of East Jerusalem, since they will remain under Israeli sovereignty in any peace agreement, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Monday.
The two met as Rice continued her marathon talks in Israel and the Palestinian areas, meeting Olmert for a second time since arriving in the region on Saturday night.
She also held trilateral talks with the sides' chief negotiators, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian premier Ahmed Qureia, who have been meeting regularly to discuss the so- called core issues of the conflict.
But their talks have been overshadowed by Israeli announcements of settlement construction in the occupied territories, especially East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the capital of their future state, but Israel claims as its "undivided, indivisible capital."
According to Israel Army Radio, Rice urged Olmert to make a "significant" declaration of intent regarding the peace talks, to be presented to President George W Bush when he visits Israel in mid- May.
The declaration would include Israel's commitment to the negotiations with the Palestinians, and would state what concessions and compromises he is willing to make on the core issues.
Rice had held joint talks in Jerusalem Sunday with Acting Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, who presented the two with a series of measures aimed at easing security restrictions and allowing more economic freedom in the West Bank.
A 35-page booklet Barak handed to Rice, included, according to reports from the meeting, a proposal to establish a new Palestinian city, to be financed by a Jordanian businessman, near Ramallah.
The Israeli defence minister also said 700 Palestinian policemen would be allowed to enter the northern West Bank city of Jenin, some 50 of the hundreds of roadblocks in the West Bank would be removed and 25 armoured vehicles would be transferred to the Palestinians.
Also on Sunday, Rice met in Jordan with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and King Abdullah II, who both urged Washington to put pressure on Israel to stop settlement activity in East Jerusalem as a prerequisite for successful negotiations with the Palestinians.
Israel published tenders for the construction of 750 new apartments in East Jerusalem, and an additional 3,600 new homes were in earlier planning stages, the Israeli Peace Now human rights group confirmed in a report published Monday.
The houses are being built in existing Jewish neighbourhoods of the disputed city, which Israel insists on keeping as part of a future peace deal.
But Peace Now said those Jewish neighbourhoods - Har Homa and Giv'at Ze'ev - were being expanded "deep" into the West Bank, beyond the "green line" separating Israel and the occupied territory.
In total, Israel is currently building 500 new residential buildings, each consisting of dozens of apartments, in West Bank settlements around Jerusalem and near the green line where it has refused to stop construction and which it wants to keep as part of a final peace deal.
Israel also uprooted only a single settlers' outpost in the West Bank, consisting of an abandoned caravan, since it revived negotiations with the Palestinians at a US-hosted peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland in November, Peace Now added.
The new negotiations have ended a seven-year freeze in the Middle East peace process, but they have been overshadowed by the ongoing Israeli settlement construction.
And the US has greatly intensified its involvement, to push the sides toward their ambitiously stated goal of reaching at least the outline of a peace agreement by the end of this year.
Rice's visit to the region is the second in less than a month. Vice President Dick Cheney visited the region just last week, and President George W Bush, on the occasion of Israel's 60th anniversary, is due to visit himself again in May, for the second time since his January tour of the Middle East.