Olmert seeks to tighten grip on West Bank building

By Ari Rabinovitch

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has ordered the Housing Ministry not to unilaterally issue any additional building permits on occupied land in the West Bank, Israeli officials said on Friday.

Olmert was caught off guard by a series of Housing Ministry announcements on settlements that have opened a rift in month-old peace talks with the Palestinians, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

While the order means all new tenders for construction will have to go through Olmert's office, it is unclear to what extent the prime minister intends to curb building within existing settlements.

Olmert, in a meeting on Thursday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, balked at promising to stop construction that is already authorised or under way in settlements in the Jerusalem area, Israeli officials said.

The prime minister's office and the Housing Ministry had no immediate comment.

U.S.-backed peace talks, launched at a conference in Annapolis, Maryland last month, have bogged down since Israel announced plans to build hundreds of new homes in an area near Jerusalem known to Israelis as Har Homa and to Palestinians as Jabal Abu Ghneim.

In their meeting in Jerusalem, the first since Annapolis, Olmert and Abbas agreed to push ahead with the negotiations despite the dispute over settlements.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qurie told Reuters that Olmert assured Abbas that "there will be measures on the ground taken by the Israeli government in relation to the issue of settlements". Qurie offered no details.