Olmert orders ministers in writing to seek his approval for any West Bank construction

A week before U.S. President George W. Bush visits the region, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has sent an official letter to Cabinet ministers ordering them not to authorize any West Bank construction without his approval, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Associated Press on Monday.

The letter, sent Sunday to the ministers of defense, housing and agriculture, did not address construction in east Jerusalem, which has upset just-relaunched peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. But last week, a spokesman said Olmert issued a directive to all government ministries requiring his approval for construction in east Jerusalem as well.

Several recent lower-level decisions to move ahead with such construction caught Olmert off guard and angered the Palestinians and the United States.

"Establishment, new construction, expansion, preparation of plans, publication of residency bids, confiscation of land and all other activities related to Israeli settlement of the area shall not go forward and shall not be carried out without requesting and receiving in advance approval by the defense minister (Ehud Barak) and the prime minister," the letter read.

These orders do not apply to construction that already has been approved, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said. They do not apply to east Jerusalem either, because from the Israeli perspective, "the West Bank is not Jerusalem, and Jerusalem is not the West Bank," he added.

Israel captured both the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. But although the Palestinians regard Jewish neighborhoods in either territory to be settlements, Israel says that label does not apply to east Jerusalem, which it annexed shortly after the war.

The international community has not recognized the Israeli annexation.

Regev said Olmert's letter was a "policy directive by the prime minister designed to ensure that the machinery of government is ready to implement our obligations under the 'road map'" _ a reference to the internationally backed peace plan that is underpinning the renewed talks.

The first phase of the road map requires Israel to freeze all settlement construction and the Palestinians to clamp down on militant groups.

The plan broke down shortly after it was presented in June 2003 because neither side fulfilled its initial obligations.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said he hoped the Israeli government would "take the path of peace and negotiations, and abandon the path of settlements and dictations."

"We want to make 2008 the year of the treaty, and I hope that the Israeli government will move from settlements to peace, because they cannot have both," Erekat said.

Israel's announcement after the high-profile U.S. peace conference in late November that it would expand the Jewish Har Homa neighborhood in east Jerusalem so enraged the Palestinians that they were unwilling to discuss in the renewed talks any of the issues at the core of their conflict with Israel.

Last week, however, the Palestinians agreed to put the issue aside ahead of Bush's visit to the region next week, allowing talks on the main issues to go ahead. After Abbas and Olmert met on Thursday for the first time since Annapolis, Regev announced that both sides agreed not to take steps that could prejudice a final peace deal.

The three main stumbling blocks in the peace talks have historically been the future borders between Israel and a Palestinian state, sovereignty over Jerusalem; and a solution for Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven from their homes in fighting that lead to Israel's creation in 1948.

On Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia in Jerusalem, the Israeli foreign ministry said. It gave no details of the talks.

Friction over Har Homa was only the first problem to beset the newly resumed peace talks. On Friday, Palestinian attackers shot dead two Israelis near the West Bank city of Hebron, provoking Olmert to declare that no peace moves would be carried out until the Palestinians cracked down on militants.

Three militant groups, including the Gaza Strip's Islamic Hamas rulers and an offshoot of Abbas' Fatah movement, claimed responsibility.

Olmert and Abbas had set a December 2008 target for reaching a peace agreement, coinciding with the end of Bush's tenure.

In violence late Sunday, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian woman on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza while waiting for relatives to return from a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, Palestinian officials said. The Israeli army said it was looking into the report.