Bethlehem – Ma’an - Palestinian leaders reject Wednesday's unilateral decision by the Israeli Security Cabinet to delay some new construction in West Bank settlements excluding East Jerusalem for ten months, PLO leader Saeb Erekat announced Thursday.

Saeb Erekat, the PLO head negotiator, called on Washington to compel Israel to freeze construction completely so it will be possible to renew peace talks.

Late Wednesday night officials in Erekat's office called the Israeli plan a diversion, "What Israel is talking about is a slowdown - not a freeze," one PLO official said.

The official noted that Netanyahu's definition of a settlement freeze, in which synagogues, schools, and public facilities expand unabated in the West Bank, was not even being offered in East Jerusalem.

Earlier Wednesday, the Israeli prime minister told his political-security cabinet that East Jerusalem would not be affected, reiterating his position that the occupied city is Israel's undivided, eternal capital.

"Israel wants to make a distinction between Jerusalem and the West Bank. There cannot be a distinction," the official said, adding that the PLO believes accepting such a proposal would amount to surrendering Jerusalem.

As expected in his official statement, Erekat stressed that the exclusion of Jerusalem in the freeze was unacceptable to Palestinian leaders.

He added that ignoring the construction in Jerusalem would put the peace process in danger. He called on Israel to maintain its commitment to the Road Map, which stresses a complete halt in settlement construction throughout zones occupied by Israel.

Tayseer Khaled, member of the executive committee of the PLO and member of the political bureau of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, called the Israeli declaration one-sided and political.

Khaled called on the international community, especially the American administration, not to be "deceived by the new Israeli move" and to continue putting pressure on the Israeli government to halt settlements to the 1967 borders, including East Jerusalem.