Israeli defense minister, U.S. envoy to meet again on settlements

JERUSALEM -- An Israeli defense official said Defense Minister Ehud Barak is to hold a second round of talks with U.S. special Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell this week in an effort to resolve differences between the two sides on Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity as neither Israel or the U.S. has made a formal announcement. He said the meeting was expected to take place in London on Monday, less than a week after Barak and Mitchell met in New York.

The U.S. wants settlement construction halted completely to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Israel's insistence that building within existing settlements be allowed to accommodate growing families and marriages has been an irritant in its relations with President Barack Obama's administration.

After his June 30 meeting with Mitchell, Barak said Israel is considering what it can do to enable the Mideast peace process and allow Palestinian-Israeli negotiations to take off, including instituting a temporary freeze on settlements.

But when asked by reporters whether Israel would agree to a freeze of perhaps three to six months, Barak replied: "I think it's a little bit too early to predict."

He added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would meet Mitchell in the next two or three weeks.

Netanyahu was scheduled to see Mitchell last month in Paris but called the meeting off in an apparent sign of growing friction over Obama's call for a halt to settlement construction.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said peace talks cannot resume until settlement construction in Palestinian territories comes to a complete halt.