Netanyahu 'Ready to Partially Freeze West Bank Building'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is ready to partially freeze West Bank settlement building if it will bring the Palestinians back to direct talks, an Israeli newspaper reported on Friday.

According to Haaretz, the offer was made in a conversation with Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin on Wednesday during a surprise visit to the region in order to try and help the parties reach some kind of agreement on how to resume talks.

Holguin had met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Tuesday, and at the subsequent talks with Netanyahu, she explained that the Palestinian leader desperately needed a symbolic gesture on settlements if he was to return to negotiations, a senior Israeli official told the paper.

In response, Netanyahu said he would be "ready to make such a gesture if it would return Abbas to the negotiating table" and agreed to freeze all government-sponsored construction and all building on state land.

But he said he would not agree to freeze settlement activity by private developers on privately-owned land -- which constitutes the majority of settlement activity.

The official said the offer would test whether or not Abbas was serious about returning to direct negotiations.

"Netanyahu said he was ready to test Abbas by making the gesture regarding settlements. 'If Abbas is serious about negotiations, he will renew direct talks,' Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev refused to comment directly on the report saying only: "The prime minister's position has not changed -- he is ready for direct peace talks with the Palestinian Authority without any preconditions."

Direct talks were last held in September 2010 but quickly ran aground after the expiry of a temporary freeze on West Bank settlement construction, which Israel did not renew.

The Palestinians say they will not talk while Israel continues to build on land they want for a future state.

The reported proposal came almost a month after Abbas approached the United Nations with a formal request for state membership in a move which is fiercely opposed by Israel and the United States, and which is also rejected by Colombia.

The proposal is currently being studied by the U.N. Security Council which could vote on it as early as November 11, a senior Western diplomat said on Wednesday.