By The Associated Press
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has promised to build about 600 housing units in contentious West Bank settlements, a political ally of the prime minister said Wednesday, adding new tensions to peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
The announcement came shortly before U.S. President George W. Bush arrived in Israel to take part in the Jewish state's 60th anniversary celebrations - and to try to nudge forward Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
Palestinians want all of the West Bank as part of their future state. They oppose all Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank, saying it undermines peace talks. Some 270,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements.
New settlement building could help the embattled Olmert keep his coalition together while police investigate corruption suspicions against him. But it would make it tougher for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to convince his people that diplomacy, not violence, could win them a state.
Bush's plane hadn't even landed before the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, a member of Olmert's coalition, affirmed that the prime minister had agreed to new construction in the Beitar Ilit settlement near Jerusalem.
"I am happy that ... they will approve the construction," Shas Chairman Eli Yishai told Israel Radio.
Another Shas official said Olmert told Yishai that construction would be approved early next week. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan had not been officially announced.
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