Three months after launching a Middle East peace plan, the United States said today it was still discussing with Israel the meaning of what Palestinians see as a crucial part of the first phase - an end to settlement activity in Palestinian territories.
The peace plan or "road map," which Israel has accepted, says that by the end of May 2003 the Israeli government should have frozen "all settlement activity (including the natural growth of settlements)."
Today Israel announced plans to build 22 new homes at the Jewish settlement of Neweh Dekalim in the Gaza Strip in defiance of the plan, just a day after US President George W. Bush said the initiative was on track.
The Palestinians said the announcement was a blow to the "road map" and undermined efforts to rebuild trust after 34 months of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
US State Department spokesman Mr Richard Boucher did not comment directly on the Israeli plans but said that Israel and the United States were still discussing the settlements. "There are very involved aspects to this, of funding, of so-called natural growth, so-called questions of children, questions of cousins, questions of schools, questions of perimeters, questions of land," he told a briefing.
"It remains a stated US policy that a settlements freeze is part of the road map and we expect the parties to abide by the commitments in the road map.
"We are talking with them about how they should do that. We haven't accepted one formula, one phrase, one word, one characterization or not," he added.
The United States says the Jewish settlements are an obstacle to peace but for many years it has dissented from the international consensus that they are illegal under the Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians in occupied land.