Ramallah, January 15, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he will reject renewed US pressure to resume peace talks unless Israel first fully halts settlement building in the occupied West Bank.

Abbas was due to meet Jim Jones, US President Barack Obama's national security adviser, later on Thursday in Ramallah. Jones was also meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. George Mitchell, the US envoy for Middle East peace, is also due in the region in the coming days.

President Abbas has insisted on a complete halt to Israeli building in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Abbas said: "We will not accept this and we have already conveyed our position to the American administration." US pressure to resume talks without a full settlement freeze was unjust, he said media agencies reported.

Abbas says a partial, 10-month freeze announced by Netanyahu in November is insufficient for a resumption of the peace talks aimed at ending the Palestinians' decades-long conflict with Israel.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this month urged Israel and the Palestinians to resume negotiations straight away and to focus immediately on agreeing the borders of a Palestinian state and the status of Jerusalem, suggesting this could break the deadlock over Jewish settlements.