81.   Palestinians protesting Jewish settlement expansion clashed Thursday with Israeli soldiers throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

82.   Openly criticizing Israel, visiting British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said Tuesday that halting Jewish settlement expansion was a prerequisite for progress in the troubled Mideast peace talks.

83.   Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accelerated settlement expansion in his three years in power, drawing criticism from the United States, which has demanded a building suspension.

84.   Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the architect of Israeli settlement expansion, long opposed the barrier for ideological reasons, but reluctantly gave his approval this month.

85.   Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday praised Jewish settlement expansion in the face of U.S. criticism and Jewish settlers seized a West Bank hilltop.

86.   Prime minister praises settlement expansion.

87.   Ross failed to bring the two sides closer together, and the Palestinians blamed him for not aggressively tackling Jewish settlement expansion on disputed land.

88.   Sharon, an ardent support of Israeli settlement expansion for decades, long opposed the barrier for ideological reasons, but reluctantly gave his approval this month.

89.   Settlement expansion has been viewed as one of the major obstacles in the peace process and has been criticized by the Clinton administration.

90.   Settlement expansion will make it increasingly difficult for Palestinians to set up an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip because it will break up territorial continuity.