PARIS (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday it expects to reach an agreement with United States, but officials said it takes hard work to overcome a disagreement on the growth of Jewish settlements in West Bank .
A senior Israeli official traveling with Mr. Netanyahu to Paris where he met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, but canceled a meeting with a senior U.S. envoy said it takes a lot working hard to reach a common ground with Washington on the topic of occupations.
The U.S. president, Barack Obama, Netanyahu wants to declare a total freeze on settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, territory where Palestinians hope to establish a state.
For its part has said that Netanyahu intends to continue building on the existing blocks to accommodate families in what he calls a natural growth of settlements.
Speaking after his talks with Sarkozy, Netanyahu told reporters that differences may arise between the best friends and added that Israel is in the process of clarify its policy on settlements with Washington.
Western diplomat commented that the abrupt cancellation of the meeting in Paris scheduled for Thursday between Netanyahu and U.S. Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, the stresses difficulty of both parties to overcome their differences.
However, Mitchell will meet next Monday in Washington with the Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak. I asked for the postponement of the meeting, Netanyahu said on the talks.
Mr. Mitchell agreed immediately. He believed that we needed to clarify several issues and statistics. The defense minister made it Monday in the United States, added the prime minister.
In Washington the State Department spokesman, Ian Kelly, said the decision of the first envoy meets was taken with Barack together and added that the meeting between Netanyahu and Mitchell has not yet been rescheduled.
(Additional Reporting by Deborah Charles in Washington)
(Written by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem and Adam Entous; Edited by Gabriela Donoso in Spanish)
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