ISRAEL'S prime minister has abruptly halted a plan to explore the potential construction of thousands of new homes in West Bank settlements.
Benjamin Netanyahu said the move had created an "unnecessary confrontation" with the international community that threatened to weaken his campaign against Iran's suspect nuclear programme.
The plan announced by Israel's Housing Ministry had prompted a Palestinian threat to walk out of US-brokered peace talks and drew angry criticism from officials in Washington, who said they had been unaware of the move.
Mr Netanyahu said he had asked housing minister Uri Ariel to "reconsider" the plan and noted Mr Ariel, a member of the pro-settlement Jewish Home Party, had drawn up the plan "without any advance co-ordination".
The ministry had refused to say how many of these homes were in settlements, but the anti-settlement watchdog group Peace Now, which closely monitors construction activity, said the plans included 20,000 apartments in the West Bank and 4,000 in east Jerusalem.
l A Palestinian teenager working illegally in Israel has stabbed an Israeli soldier to death on a bus in the northern town of Afula. Police have arrested the 16-year-old.
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