The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Washington

The United States on Monday criticized new Israeli settlements as "unhelpful" but insisted the shaky peace process carry on during a visit here by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Sitting next to Livni, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged both Israelis and Palestinians to honor their obligations under the 2003 roadmap for peace, which calls for a settlement freeze and an end to Palestinian violence.

Rice will raise the settlements with Livni, but she will focus on "let's keep this process moving forward" in order to prevent disputes from bogging it down, her spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters earlier. In remarks to the media at the start of her talks with Livni, Rice referred vaguely to Israel's announcement at the weekend that it will build hundreds of new housing units in a settlement in the occupied West Bank. "US policy on this is well known," Rice said when asked whether the announcement was "unhelpful" to the peace process, as McCormack had said.