Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly planning to let the moratorium expire while curbing construction in order to avoid a showdown with US President Barack Obama, who has urged him to extend the restrictions.

The Palestinians have repeatedly threatened to walk out of direct peace talks launched earlier this month if construction resumes, casting a pall over the second round of the negotiations set to be held in Egypt on Tuesday.

The anti-settlement Peace Now group said the construction of some 13,000 new homes for Israeli settlers in the West Bank could proceed immediately after the moratorium expires later this month without any further government action.

The group said ground had already been broken on 2,066 units and that another 11,000 had received final government approval.

"This means that if the government decides on a de facto 'tacit freeze', and commits to not approve any new construction but without renewing the freeze order, the settlers can still build 13,000 housing units," Peace Now said.

It added that another 25,000 units were in the pipeline but required further government approval.

An Israeli government official confirmed on condition of anonymity that construction on around 2,000 homes could proceed without any further approval, without providing further details.

Israeli officials speaking privately have said the government will avoid making any formal announcement either way when the moratorium expires on September 26 while quietly preventing any major new construction.

And on Sunday Netanyahu told his right-wing Likud party, which opposes any extension, that "there is all or nothing but there are also halfway options," according to Israel's Ynet news service.

The Palestinians view the presence of some 500,000 Israelis in more than 120 settlements scattered across the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem as a major obstacle to the establishment of a viable state.

They had repeatedly called for a complete settlement freeze ahead of any direct peace talks, but reluctantly backed down on the demand in August after months of intense pressure from Washington.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has threatened to walk out of the current talks if construction in the settlements resumes, while Obama has asked him to show more flexibility.

On Monday a member of the Palestinian negotiating team said their position on settlements was clear, but he did not explicitly threaten to quit the talks.

"We will go to Sharm el-Sheikh with an open heart and an open mind, but if Israel resumes construction in the settlements it amounts to an assault on the peace process and the Palestinian people," Mohammad Shatayeh told AFP.

"We will not accept talk of partial, or light or slow settlement activity. Our demand, which we conveyed to the American administration, was for a complete settlement halt."

earlier related report
Gaza economy grew 16 pct in 2010: IMF
Jerusalem (AFP) Sept 13, 2010 - The easing of the Israeli blockade allowed the Gaza Strip's economy to grow 16 percent in the first half of the year, an official at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Monday.

But he cautioned that the growth came after years of strict closures that devastated the economy and said that continued expansion there and in the occupied West Bank depended on the further easing of restrictions.

"It's starting from a very low base after a very tight blockade," said Oussama Kanaan, the IMF representative in the West Bank and Gaza.

Unemployment in Gaza remains above 35 percent, one of the highest rates in the world, Kanaan said, and living standards are still well below their level in 1994, when the Palestinian Authority was created.

The latest growth figures, which compare the first half of this year to the same period in 2009, come from the findings of his mission and will be reflected in a report to be presented at a donors meeting in New York on September 21.

Israel began quietly easing its blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory in the spring and started allowing all purely civilian goods to enter after its deadly May 31 seizure of an aid flotilla sparked international outrage.

Israel and neighbouring Egypt first imposed the closures when an Israeli soldier was captured in June 2006 and tightened them when the Islamist Hamas movement -- sworn to Israel's destruction -- seized power a year later.

The West Bank economy meanwhile grew at a rate of nine percent during the same period as the Western-backed Palestinian Authority further reduced its dependence on foreign aid from 1.8 billion dollars (1.4 billion euros) in 2007 to 1.2 billion dollars (900 million euros) in 2010.

However, Kanaan said lower-than-expected donor aid had forced the PA to borrow extensively from local banks and left it with a 300 million dollar (240 million euro) financing gap for 2010.

He pointed out that the private sector is still hindered by closures and only has limited access to the 60 percent of the West Bank that is under the exclusive control of the Israeli military.

The findings come as Israeli and Palestinian leaders prepare to hold a second round of US-backed negotiations in Egypt on Tuesday after formally relaunching direct peace talks earlier this month.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News