101.   Successive U.S. administrations have opposed settlement expansion and considers it to be an obstacle to peace.

102.   Tamari said that settlement expansion was suffocating surrounding Palestinian villages and threatening their water resources.

103.   The clash highlighted Palestinian demands that moderate Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak freeze Jewish settlement expansion in order to rebuild the trust needed for resuming peace talks.

104.   The government accepting settlement expansion adjacent to Efrat but not one hill over seemed to have little impact on Palestinian opinion.

105.   The debate had been provoked by Palestinian protests of settlement expansions in the occupied West Bank.

106.   The gesture fell far short of demands by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to halt building at Har Homa and stop all Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank.

107.   The government accepting settlement expansion adjacent to Efrat but not on one hill over seemed to have little impact on Palestinian opposition.

108.   The Israeli leader countered earlier Tuesday that settlement expansion fits into earlier plans to accommodate the growth of the Jewish population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

109.   The Palestinian Authority will set up committees of local residents through out the West Bank to defend land against Israeli settlement expansion, a Cabinet minister said Saturday.

110.   The Palestinians had demanded a halt to all Israeli settlement expansion, but Shaath said such issues would be dealt with after the talks resumed.