Biden calls for Middle East talks to resume

US Vice President Joe Biden has called for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks to start without delay despite a row over Jewish settlers. Israel's announcement this week of plans to build 1,600 settler homes in the occupied West Bank has cast a shadow over US efforts to get the peace process back on track. The settlement announcement embarrassed Mr Biden, who said it undermined peace efforts, and infuriated the West Bank-based Palestinian leadership, which had agreed to a US proposal for indirect talks under pressure from Washington and Arab allies. In a speech at Tel Aviv University, Mr Biden said: "The most important thing is for these talks to go forward and go forward promptly and go forward in good faith. We can't delay because when progress is postponed, extremists exploit our differences." But he gave no sign Washington would press Israel to cancel the project, as the Palestinians have demanded. Instead, he termed "significant" assurances from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that building at the site, a religious settlement, would not start for years.

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ITN | March 11, 2010

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