EU slams Israel over settlement building

(BRUSSELS) - EU foreign ministers on Monday called for a total freeze on Jewish settlement building in the Palestinian territories, as Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman visited Brussels.

"We asked for a total freeze of settlement activities and we will pursue this policy," said Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's green light for more settlers' homes is "completely unacceptable," his Finish counterpart Alexander Stubb said, while adding that the recent rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into Israel was equally unacceptable.

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton, who made her first official trip to the Middle East last week, stressed that "there has to be a recognition that the talks have to get moving."

The talks in question are so-called "proximity talks" which means the Israeli and Palestinian representatives are in the same building, with US mediation, but not meeting face-to-face.

Ex-British PM Tony Blair, the Middle East envoy for the quartet of the EU, UN, US and Russia, was in Brussels to address the assembled foreign ministers ahead of talks in Moscow on Friday, where the possibility of the indirect talks will be discussed.

Israel's Lieberman was also in Brussels for bilateral talks with his German, Italian, Dutch, Lithuanian and Maltese counterparts.

Netanyahu, however, cancelled a planned 24-hour visit to Brussels later in the week, an Israeli official said on Monday.

Netanyahu had been scheduled to meet EU president Herman Van Rompuy and the prime ministers of Belgium, Italy and The Netherlands on his return from a visit to the United States.

However, Netanyahu decided to extend his stay in Washington after receiving an invitation to meet with US President Barack Obama, the official said, asking not to be named.

Foreign Affairs Council