US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday called on Israel to make greater efforts to ease tensions with Palestinians as she tried to overcome Arab anger over Jewish settlements.
The United States had urged a halt to all settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as a precursor to relaunching the peace process, but on Saturday Clinton endorsed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's offer of a partial freeze.
Speaking ahead of an international conference in Marrakech, Morocco, she admitted that the Israeli offer "falls far short of our preferences" but was still worth seizing.
"If it is acted upon it will be an unprecedented restriction on settlements and will have a significant and meaningful effect on restraining their growth," Clinton said.
"The Obama administration's position on settlements is clear and unequivocal. It has not changed. The US does not accept the legitimacy of continuing Israeli settlements."
Clinton said she has pressured Israel to do "much more" to reciprocate measures taken by the Palestinians to improve security.
"I told Prime Minister Netanyahu that these positive steps on the part of the Palestinians should be met by positive steps from Israel on movements, access ... and Israeli security arrangements in the West Bank," she said.
"Israel has done a few things in that regard but they need to do much more," Clinton said before going into talks with Morocco's Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi-Fihri.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas "has shown leadership and determination" regarding concerns over security, she said, "and Israel should reciprocate."
The United States is trying to rally Arab support for embattled Palestinian leader Abbas and to normalise ties between Arab states and Israel.
Ahead of the Marrakech conference of Arab ministers, a US official argued that Netanyahu "goes further in his willingness to restrain the settlements than any Israeli government before."
"While we reject the legitimacy of settlements, we also do not feel that they should be a precondition for negotiations," said Clinton's spokesman, Philip Crowley.
Arab leaders, however, were unconvinced.
According to the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam, Abbas and his aides were "astonished" by Clinton's endorsement of Netanyahu's offer.
On Sunday, Arab League chief Amr Mussa ruled out any resumption of talks between Israel and the Palestinians before a total freeze on Jewish settlements.
"If there is no freeze on settlements, there is no wisdom: What are you negotiating? Why build more settlements? Why create another fait accompli? It is not serious," Mussa told journalists in Marrakech.
"If they want to continue this practice and enjoy protection against international law, then so be it, but then there can be no normalisation."
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit also said Sunday that it was "not reasonable or acceptable to conduct negotiations with the continuation of settlements."
Even the left-wing Israeli daily Haaretz was puzzled by Clinton's position.
"All US presidents since (the Oslo accords), including Hillary Clinton's husband, treated the settlements just like the weather: an interesting topic for conversation, but impossible to change. But Barack Obama has promised a change, not more of the same," the paper said.
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