Israel snubs EU ministers

Israel has refused to meet a delegation of European foreign ministers this week as diplomatic pressure mounts on the Jewish state to extend a 10-month settlement building freeze that ends next week.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday told Middle East envoy Tony Blair that current restrictions on building West Bank settlements will not remain, but there would be some limits on construction.

Israel has bridled at the "insensitive" European demand to hold the talks on the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, denying Israeli newspaper reports that the refusal was connected to European wishes to discuss the settlement freeze.

The ministers from Britain, France, Italy, Spain and Germany had apparently proposed to hold meetings on the morning of September 17, hours before the start of the Yom Kippur fast.