Israel moves to calm US over settlement plan

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken by phone to US Secretary of State John Kerry in a bid to calm Washington's anger over new Israeli settlement plans, an official said yesterday.

The plan to construct what activists say amounts to a new settlement in the heart of the occupied West Bank provoked an unusually harsh response last week from the White House, which accused Israel of betraying its trust.

US President Barack Obama's administration has accelerated its criticism of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank in recent months, warning it is destroying hopes for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Netanyahu told Kerry the new settlement plan was intended only as an alternative "if no other solution is found" to house residents of a nearby Jewish outpost that is under a court order to be demolished.

The official said the two men also discussed regional issues but could provide no further details on their phone call. Israeli media reported that the conversation took place on Saturday.

The plan that provoked US anger involves 300 units in the heart of the West Bank, roughly halfway between the Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Nablus.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian opened fire from a car in Jerusalem yesterday and again as Israeli police chased him, killing an officer and a woman, officials said, as fears grew of a new spike in violence.

The gunman, reportedly scheduled to begin a prison term the same day, was killed soon after carrying out the attack near police headquarters, close to the line dividing mainly Palestinian east Jerusalem from the city's mostly Jewish western sector.