Colonies in limelight as Netanyahu meets Sarkozy

Paris: Growing frustration with Jewish colonies and anxiety about the Palestinian National Authority's future set the stage for talks on Wednesday between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Iran is the reason Netanyahu wanted to visit France, and he's likely to urge Sarkozy to press harder on Tehran to freeze nuclear activities.

Sarkozy, however, is likely to press the Israeli leader to relax his stance on Jewish colonies, which have thrown a wrench into the Mideast peace process and prompted fears of renewed extremist violence.

The Palestinians say peace talks can't resume until Israel meets its commitment to freezing, and not just limiting, colony activity on lands the Palestinians want as part of a future Palestinian state.

Netanyahu has so far resisted, and made no further commitments during an awkward visit to the United States earlier this week.

The Obama administration also has called for a freeze, but US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton argued during a visit to the Mideast last week that Israeli restraint could be seen as a first step toward a negotiated halt to colony activity.

Paris is less flexible, and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on French radio on Tuesday that a colony freeze was "absolutely indispensable" to peace talks.

He said the "political dispute" over the colonies between Sarkozy and Netanyahu would be central to their talks Wednesday and warned that Israelis seemed to have lost their aspirations for peace.