Cairo: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that Washington does not accept the legitimacy of Israeli colony activity but believes that getting to talks is the quickest way to achieve a freeze.
"We do not accept the legitimacy of settlement [colony] activity and we have a very firm belief that ending all settlement [colony] activity, current and future, would be preferable," Clinton said after meeting President Hosni Mubarak.
"Getting into final status negotiations will allow us to bring an end to settlement [colony] activity," she added.
Cairo is Clinton's last stop on a tour of the region during which Arab anger has flared over signs the Obama administration no longer backs Palestinian demands that Israel immediately stop building colonies on occupied territory in the West Bank.
US President Barack Obama has eased pressure on Israel over colonies, calling for restraint in construction where he had earlier pushed for a freeze. The change has angered Palestinians who say it has killed any hope of reviving peace talks soon.
Clinton underscored this shift in emphasis in occupied Jerusalem on Saturday when she hailed Netanyahu's offer on colony restraint as "unprecedented" and urged the Palestinians to drop their precondition for talks without making any similar specific demands of the Israeli side.
Clinton's visit to Egypt followed a two-day stop in Morocco where she urged Arab foreign ministers to put aside recriminations and support moves to resume the talks, suspended since December.
The visit was seen by many as an attempt to salvage her Middle East tour after upsetting Arabs with praise of Israel.
Clinton added Egypt to her itinerary at the last minute after sparking criticism for welcoming as "unprecedented" a pledge by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to limit colony growth.
Forward momentum
"We recognised coming into the region that things have stalled, and we keep looking to see how we can begin to create some forward momentum again," Clinton's spokesman Philip Crowley said late on Tuesday.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Abu Al Geit told Clinton by telephone on Monday that Egypt supports the Palestinian stance, which rejects negotiations until Israel completely halts colony building, office MENA news agency reported.
Cairo has long been a key player in international efforts to bring about an end to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Clinton had also called for a speedy resumption of peace talks that were suspended during the Gaza war over the new year, despite the Palestinian insistence that Israel must freeze colony activity first.
She later clarified her comments to say that Washington still considers the colonies to be illegal and acknowledged she could have spoken more clearly.
"I think President [Barack] Obama was absolutely clear. He wanted a halt to all [colony] activity," she said in an interview with Al Jazeera television.
"Perhaps those of us who work with him and for him could have been clearer in communicating that that is his policy," she said. Al Geit said Cairo wants to hear Clinton's clarifications of her remarks. "She has given specific clarifications ... and we want to listen to the clarifications directly and then assess the situation."
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