Abbas asks EU's Ashton to press Israel on settlements

(RAMALLAH) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday asked visiting EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton to press Israel to halt settlement activity, his chief negotiator said.

"President Abbas met with Lady Ashton in his office in Ramallah and gave her a letter demanding that the European Union intervene to pressure Israel to completely halt settlements in the Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem," Saeb Erakat told AFP after the meeting.

He said the letter included maps and other documents about settlement construction carried out since September 2009.

Abbas has called on the international community to pressure Israel to halt all settlement activity and to cancel plans to build 1,600 new settler homes in mostly Arab east Jerusalem, which dealt a major blow to US-led peace efforts.

Ashton did not comment on the meeting in the West Bank town, but during an earlier stop in Beirut said she planned to discuss peace efforts with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

"We attach great importance to the resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict," she said. "It is central too as part of the solution to other problems in the region, but also of course in the interest of the European Union."

Her visit comes after some of the worst rioting in years rocked east Jerusalem on Tuesday and amid calls by the Palestinian Islamist movement which rules Gaza for a new intifada, or uprising.

Ashton said she was still hopeful that indirect talks between the Palestinians and Israelis would take place.

"I hope that we will see the return to calm and that we will be able to urge those (talks) to start being engaged," Ashton said.

Her Middle East tour has included stops in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

She is expected in Moscow on Friday for a meeting of the Middle East Quartet, which is comprised of the United Nations, Russia, the United States and the European Union.