Arab League accuses Israel of undermining US-backed talks ahead of Clinton's visit to Egypt.

CAIRO: Arab League Chief Amr Moussa on Monday accused Israel of sabotaging US efforts to restart Middle East peace talks and backed the Palestinian refusal to negotiate until Israel halts settlement activity.

Moussa told AFP he feared Washington's diplomatic push had been brought back "to the starting point" because of Israel's refusal to halt settlement building in the West Bank, a Palestinian precondition for the resumption of talks.

"It has brought us back to the starting point," Moussa, who is in Marrakech for an Arab foreign ministers meeting, told AFP in a phone interview.

"We have clear fears. Israel wants to resume negotiations without preconditions. It wants to remove the issue of Jerusalem (from negotiations), without stopping settlements.

"There are a lot of consultations to see what should be done in the light of the position taken by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas not to resume negotiations before a halt to settlements, which is sensible and has Arab backing," he said.

Moussa, meanwhile, told the BBC in an interview he feared the US diplomatic efforts were on the verge of failing.

"I'm really afraid that we are about to see a failure. But still wait until we have our meetings and decide what we're going to do. But failure is in the atmosphere all over," he said.

He added that he hoped the US President Barack "Obama administration will not accept this slap on the face and that they will try harder and in a firmer way."

Washington had urged a total halt to new Israeli construction in the West Bank, but on Saturday US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's offer to restrict new building, while allowing existing settlements to expand, was "unprecedented."

However, on Monday, Clinton -- who will visit Egypt today to meet President Hosni Mubarak as part of efforts to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks -- called on Israel to make greater efforts to ease tensions and said Washington still opposes new Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

"The Obama administration's position on settlements is clear and unequivocal. It has not changed. The US does not accept the legitimacy of continuing Israeli settlements," she said.

Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Al-Malki said he was "satisfied" with Clinton's explanation.

"We were surprised by the statements (from Clinton previously) and, from our point of view, that did not correspond to what we had heard in Abu Dhabi," Malki said, referring to a meeting between Abbas and Clinton on Saturday.

"I think that those statements were later corrected. So, we are satisfied that position has been straightened out."

Clinton, who is meeting Arab foreign ministers in Marrakech as part of a tour aimed at restarting the Middle East peace process, had also praised efforts by Abbas to improve security and said Israel must reciprocate.

Abbas insisted he will not agree to resume peace talks without a complete freeze of Jewish settlement construction, lead Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.

Arab countries have backed Abbas and rejected US calls to begin normalizing ties with Israel ahead of a peace deal.

Egypt's official news agency MENA reported on Monday that Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit had repeated his support for Abbas' position in a phone conversation with Clinton.

The settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967, house about 400,000 settlers and are considered a violation of international law, which forbids colonizing occupied land with civilians.

Palestinians say the settlements will prevent them from forming a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which Israel left in 2005 after 38 years of occupation, withdrawing about 8,000 settlers.

Daily NewsEgypt 2009

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