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Benjamin Netanyahu - Source: Reuters -
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has proposed "confidence-building steps" with Palestinians in a telephone call with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, after a dispute over settlements.
A statement from Netanyahu's office also says Clinton has told him that US peace envoy Senator George Mitchell will arrive in Israel on Sunday for new talks on peace moves.
State Department spokesman PJ Crowley, who is in Moscow with Clinton, has confirmed the Mitchell visit, saying Clinton and Netanyahu have discussed "specific steps" to try to improve the outlook for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
He declined to spell out what these are.
Netanyahu's spokesman Nir Chefetz says only that Netanyahu has proposed to Clinton some "mutual confidence-building steps" that both Israel and the Palestinians could take in the West Bank.
Clinton told Netanyahu that Mitchell will arrive before Netanyahu's departure for Washington on Sunday to address a pro-Israel lobby the following day.
Israeli media have said that trip may also include talks with US President Barack Obama.
Relations between Israel and the United States have been unusually tense this week after Israel announced a plan to build 1,600 housing units near occupied East Jerusalem in the middle of a visit by Vice President Joe Biden.
Netanyahu won the approval of a forum of seven senior cabinet ministers for his proposals to Clinton, Chefetz says, adding he has also "clarified" Israeli policies to her, presumably about settlements and Jerusalem, a city Israel sees as its capital, though this is not recognised internationally.
The Palestinians want East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in 1967, to be capital of a future state that they seek for the occupied West Bank.
The Quartet of Middle East peace mediators were to meet in Moscow on Friday about ways to resume the negotiations, stalled since December 2008.
