TEHRAN Israel has authorized the construction of 480 homes in the Jewish settlement of Kochav Yaacov, more than tripling the size of the West Bank enclave, officials said Tuesday. The Israeli Housing Ministry approved the new construction Monday at the same time that the Palestinian Legislative Council issued a call for Palestinians to fight the expansion of Jewish settlements by all means.

Moshe Friedman, the spokesman for the Housing Ministry, said 230 of the new housing units were already under construction in Kochav Yaacov and infrastructure was being prepared for a further 250. The units are in a new neighborhood that is within the settlement's outline plan, Friedman told AFP. While the construction itself is being privately financed, the state is helping fund infrastructure work since the government earlier declared West Bank settlements national priority development areas.

Kochav Yaacov currently has some 230 families and is located east of the Palestinian-ruled city of Ramallah north of Bait-ul-Moqaddas. The Palestinian Authority charges that continued building in Jewish settlements violates peace accords with Israel, including the Wye River land-for-security deal signed in October and which prohibits unilateral actions that change the status of the occupied territories. The right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the prohibition applies only to the creation of new settlements and not the expansion of existing communities which he says is needed to allow for natural growth.

The United States, which brokered the Wye River deal and is tasked with monitoring its implementation, has also criticized the settlement building as contrary to the spirit of peacemaking. In the five weeks since the Wye Accord was signed in Washington, Jewish settlers have been encouraged by the government to expand their settlements to preempt future negotiations with the Palestinians on the final status of the occupied territories.

Two Persian Gulf Arab leaders have called for more international support to help the Palestinian people establish an independent state, two Persian Gulf news agencies reported on Tuesday. In messages to the annual international day of solidarity with the Palestinian people, United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Sheikh Zaid Bin Sultan al-Nahayan and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani also accused Israel of violating peace deals by continuing to build settlements on Arab lands.

We appeal...for more support for the Palestinian people's cause from the international community and for more political and financial support to this people, Sheikh Zaid, quoted by WAM news agency, wrote to the United Nations on the anniversary of the 1947 UN partition of Palestine into an Arab and Jewish state. The United Nations observes the anniversary as the international day of solidarity with the Palestinian people on November 29. Israel called Monday for Syria to resume negotiations, as Damascus reportedly promised peace on the Lebanese-Israeli border if the Jewish Army withdraws fully from the Golan Heights. Israel wishes to sit at the bargaining table with the Syrians, who can put forward all their proposals and we will put forward our own, Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai told Israeli Radio. I am convinced we will find a solution this way, he said after meeting a delegation of U.S. Republican governors including George Bush Jr., son of the former U.S. president.

But as Mordechai appealed for a resumption of talks, the Israeli Parliament's law committee passed a draft law aimed at hampering the return of the Golan Heights to Syria. Under the bill, any proposal to give up territory annexed by Israel would need the approval of more than 50 percent of members of Parliament and of a referendum. (AFP)