JERUSALEM: Israel’s prime minister on Wednesday pushed for a temporary ease in settlement building amid US pressure for concessions towards peace, even as the Palestinians rejected the offer as insufficient.

‘As part of the efforts to kickstart peace efforts ... the prime minister will today ask the security cabinet to approve the temporary suspension of new construction permits for houses and new building starts’ in the occupied West Bank, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

In Washington, a US official told AFP that ‘we’re hopeful this will lead to a resumption’ of the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians that were suspended during the Gaza war at the turn of the year.

Israel’s security cabinet was widely expected to approve Netanyahu’s measure despite protests from hardline supporters of Israeli settlements.

Even before the announcement, the Palestinians warned they would reject the measure, as it fell short of their demand for a complete freeze on settlements in the West Bank.

‘This sort of announcement is not a halt to settlements, because Israel will continue to build 3,000 settlement units and government buildings in the West Bank and will exclude Jerusalem,’ chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.

Israel must also restart negotiations from the point where they left off under centrist former prime minister Ehud Olmert, Erakat added.

The United States has struggled for months to get Israel and the Palestinians to resume their peace negotiations, but those efforts have so far been futile amid deep divisions over the thorny issue of settlements.

The Palestinians have insisted that Israel first freeze all settlement activity.

But the Jewish state has only offered a temporary and partial halt, excluding mostly Arab east Jerusalem, which it views as an integral part of its capital but which the Palestinians want to make the capital of their promised state.

The international community considers all Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land as illegal and does not recognise Israel’s annexation of east Jerusalem.

On Wednesday, Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad said east Jerusalem would have to be included in any settlement moratorium. ‘The exclusion of Jerusalem is a very, very serious problem for us,’ he told reporters.

With Washington pushing for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, a cornerstone of its Middle East policy, both sides have blamed each other for the impasse.

The Palestinians insist that without a total settlement freeze, Israel is not living up to the obligations it undertook as part of the 2003 international roadmap for peace plan.

Israel says the Palestinians are setting pre-conditions for a resumption of talks.

Speaking ahead of the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Netanyahu said his right-wing government should approve his initiative even though it firmly supports the settlement enterprise.

‘This is not a simple or easy step,’ he said.

But ‘it allows us to show the world a simple truth, that the government of Israel wants to enter negotiations with the Palestinians and is taking real steps to bring about negotiations and is serious in its intentions to reach peace.’ Netanyahu heads a mostly right-wing coalition, some members of which are hardline supporters of the Israeli settlement enterprise.

‘This decree is very serious and we will not allow it to pass unopposed,’said Uri Orbach, a member of the Jewish Home party.— AFP