Mideast peace: Mitchell warns of hurdles ahead

Occupied Jerusalem: US President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy said on Friday the new administration's push for Israeli-Palestinian peace after the war in the Gaza Strip faced substantial hurdles, and predicted further setbacks.

But George Mitchell also assured leaders in the Middle East that the US is committed to "actively and aggressively" seeking lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians as well as its other Arab neighbours.

Mitchell's sombre assessment followed two days of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders about shoring up a shaky ceasefire that ended Israel's 22-day offensive in Gaza. "The tragic violence in Gaza and in southern Israel offers a sobering reminder of the very serious and difficult challenges and unfortunately the setbacks that will come," Mitchell said after touring a UN warehouse in Occupied Jerusalem packed with aid destined for the Gaza Strip.

"President Obama has expressed his deep concern about the recent loss of life and substantial suffering in Gaza," Mitchell said at the UN Relief and Works Agency warehouse. "The US remains committed to actively and aggresively seeking a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians as well as between Israel and its Arab neighbours," he added.

The envoy said consolidating the truce and "addressing immediately the humanitarian needs" of Gaza's 1.5 million residents were the Obama administration's priorities.

"Then we must move forward," he added, apparently referring to stalled peace talks that have now been derailed by Israel's war in Gaza, which killed more than 1,300 Palestinians.

Mitchell's visit came as an Israeli rights group said yesterday it would use a newly leaked database detailing the complicity of Israeli government in widespread illegal construction in West Bank colonies to help Palestinians file lawsuits over lost land.

The classified database, compiled by Israel's Defence Ministry and leaked to the Yesh Din group, shows that government agencies and private companies building colonies in the West Bank widely ignored Israeli law, in many cases seizing land that belongs to Palestinians. It also demonstrates that the government has long been aware of the lawbreaking and has kept it secret.

Former Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, vowed not to evacuate Jewish colonists in the West Bank if he is named prime minister after February 10 elections, Haaretz reported on Friday.

Netanyahu, the frontrunner for the elections, insisted he would not be tied by any pledge made by outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to withdraw colonists from the occupied Palestinian territory.