Netanyahu vows no new settlement

JERUSALEM, May 24 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday that new settlements would not be built in the West Bank.

At a weekly Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said there is no way to curb natural growth of existing settlements.

"We won't establish new settlements, but there is no logic in not providing an answer to natural growth," he was quoted by The Jerusalem Post as saying.

As for building in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said that will continue.

"It's not fair to issue a sweeping ban on settlement building, but we aspire to solve this issue through negotiations. Jerusalem, in any event, is not a settlement," he said.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has already said that nearly two dozen illegal outposts in the West Bank will be dismantled by force, if necessary.

Even so, right-wing Israeli settlers say their efforts to build new outposts in occupied Arab territories will go on despite opposition from the government, Ynetnews.com reported.

"If the government continues to take aggressive, one-sided steps, it will also be responsible for the dire consequences," Danny Dayan, head of the Yesha Council, told the Web site, accusing the new government of going back on Netanyahu's campaign pledge to renew Jewish construction in the West Bank.

"We are very disappointed," added another prominent settler leader, Daniel Weiss. "We hope that Likud (members of the Knesset) and ministers will remind Netanyahu that a right-wing government has been elected and that its ideology should advocate a Greater Israel."