Ramallah/Jerusalem - Palestinians rejected Thursday Israel's announcement that it would halt settlement construction in the occupied West Bank for 10 months, but Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak predicted that the suspension would lead to a resumption of peace talks. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Israel's announcement, made Wednesday night by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was "propaganda," and urged the US not to fall for it.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party meanwhile also rejected the Israeli move.
Erekat, in a written statement sent to journalists, called on Washington and the rest of the international community to commit Israel to a full settlement freeze, not a partial one.
Abbas has made a total halt to all Israeli settlement construction a condition for resuming peace talks, suspended one year ago. Netanyahu originally said that while Israel would construct no new settlements, it would continue building inside existing ones.
On Wednesday night, after consulting with his 15-member inner security-diplomatic cabinet, he announced in a news conference that his government would suspend construction in West Bank settlements for 10 months, but this would exclude public buildings such as synagogues, schools and kindergartens as well as the construction of some 3,000 residential apartments already begun.
It would also exclude East Jerusalem - or Jewish settlements built within the city limits but on occupied land, beyond the "green line" separating Israel and the West Bank.
"We hope that this decision will help launch meaningful negotiations to reach an historic peace agreement that will finally end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians," he said.
"I want to say clearly to the Palestinians: Now is the time to begin negotiations. Now is the time to move forward towards peace. There is no more time to waste," he added.
"I don't know how such a decision helps in resuming the peace process," said Erekat. "We hope that the US and the world won't be dragged by Netanyahu's propaganda," he continued.
"They should focus their efforts and time on committing Israel to fully stop settlement in order to resume the peace negotiations soon," he said.
Fatah's Central Committee in a statement said the Israeli offer was "nothing new."
It said it proved "once again that this government still insists to continue the policy of escaping from the peace process."
"Settlement must completely stop, not only in the West Bank, and not partially, but it must completely stop in both the West Bank and Jerusalem," it said.
But Barak said he thought that Netanyahu's announcement would spur the resumption of peace talks, although only in a few weeks, possibly after the US presented its own proposals.
Washington had already welcomed the move as a "positive step," with both President Barack Obama's special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton saying they hoped the gesture would enable a revival of long-stalled peace talks.
They nonetheless also noted that it "falls short" of a full freeze.
Mitchell, who has been trying for months to negotiate a solution to the settle,ment freeze impasse, is due in the region next week for further talks.
In Israel meanwhile, rightist lawmakers, including some belonging to Netanyahu's own Likud, were vociferous in the opposition to Netanyahu's move, joining with settler leaders who did not disguise their anger at Netanyahu.
Two Likud backbenchers attended a meeting of settler leaders, who decided to embark on an extra-parliamentary public campaign against the freeze decision.
Some 10 ministers in the 30-member cabinet oppose the freeze. But none of them are so opposed that they are prepared to quit the government, Israel Radio reported.
