WASHINGTON, Sept 30: The US Congress has voted to make the administration identify occupied Al Quds as the capital of Israel and President George Bush is expected to sign the provision into law this week, a US official said on Monday.

The requirement is part of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for next year, which gives the administration more than four billion dollars for running the State Department.

The section on the Israeli-occupied holy city goes further than previous requirements by Congress, which for years has pressed successive administrations to move the US embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Al Quds.

Successive US administrations have promised to make the move, but have repeatedly put it off because of the ill-feeling it would create in the Arab world.

The official US position is that the future of the city should be decided through Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. It was not immediately clear if and how the administration would try to reconcile this with the new legislation.

Israel captured the eastern part of the city in the 1967 war and later annexed it. Israeli governments have said the whole city is Israel’s eternal capital.

The new legislation, passed last week, does not go beyond urging the administration to start immediately the process of moving the embassy.

But it adds three mandatory provisions which change the way the United States treats the holy city.

Firstly, it says that the administration cannot spend money on the US consulate in occupied Al Quds unless the consulate is under the supervision of the US ambassador to Israel. The US consul general in Al Quds, who deals mainly with Palestinians, now reports directly to the State Department.

Secondly, any US government document which lists countries and their capitals will have to identify Al Quds as the capital of Israel.

Thirdly, in official US documents such as passports, birth certificates and nationality certifications, US citizens born there may insist that the documents record their place of birth as Israel.

The Arab American Institute wrote to Bush on Friday urging him to veto the bill, on the grounds that it overturns existing US policy and presidential authority.

“At a time when you are building a coalition to support our goals in the Middle East, Congress should not be undermining your efforts,” said George Salem, chairman of the institute.

“If made into law, (it) will further inflame and deepen resentment among Arabs and Arab countries toward the United States,” added the institute’s president, James Zogby.

In theory President Bush could veto the bill, but the provisions on Al Quds are only a small part of a piece of legislation which covers the whole world and gives the administration the money it needs to run diplomacy.

“It’s likely to be signed, probably this week,” said the US official.

The legislation also withholds 10 million dollars in aid allocated to Lebanon for next year until the Lebanese army deploys to the Israeli-Lebanese border and the Lebanese government asserts its authority in the area where the army deploys.

After Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000, the Lebanese army did not take over all the territory, giving some freedom of action to the Hezbollah.

Israel wants the Lebanese army to deploy south to the border and restrain Hezbollah, which often exchanges fire with Israeli positions in the disputed Shebaa Farms area, at the juncture of Syria, Lebanon and Israel.——Reuters