JERUSALEM, March 17: Israel will continue to build its settlements in annexed east Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday, amid international concern the action could hamper revived peace talks.

“When we build in Jerusalem, everyone knows that there is no chance that the state of

Israel will give up a neighbourhood like Har Homa,” known to Palestinians as Jabal Abu Ghneim, Olmert told a joint press conference with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“There are places that we will not give up as part of a final (peace) agreement and that is why there is no reason that we stop building there,” he said, alluding to large Israeli settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank.

Israel’s pursuit of construction in its settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank has been one of the major reasons why peace talks have made little progress since they were renewed in late November.

Numerous nations, including Israel’s staunch ally Washington, have urged the Jewish state to refrain from settlement construction during the renewed negotiations.

Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal, undivided capital, a claim not recognised by the international community. The Palestinians want to make the occupied, annexed eastern part of the Holy City the capital of their promised state.

The international community considers all Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land to be illegal.—AFP