Israel has denied a media report that it authorised the construction of 300 new homes at a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank despite U.S.'s call to freeze expansion of the Jewish settlements, Al Jazeera Web site reported.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak stated that Israel intends to build 60 new settlements at the first stage and to reach this figure to 240 within a several months in the territory of the West Bank near the administrative city Ramallah, the Israeli radio reported.
These steps will be taken despite Washington's demand to stop expansion of the Jewish settlements which hinders a peace process in the region, the Israeli radio reported.
The Israeli human rights organization lodged a complaint for a plan of expanding settlements, because this hinders Palestinian people to be engaged in agriculture, the radio reported.
But Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has refused from the demand of the U.S. and international mediators to freeze the settlement construction.