Settlements 'major obstacle' to Mideast talks: Saudi

RIYADH (AFP) –Saudi Arabia said on Saturday that Israel's settlements policy remained a "major obstacle" to Middle East peace efforts and a freeze on settlement growth was an internationally agreed requirement."The illegal settlements constitute a major obstacle to peace talks," Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said in a joint news conference with Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle."A freeze on settlements is one of the main commitments of the peace process. It is not a Palestinian condition to resuming negotiations as Israel is trying to promote," he said.His comments came a day after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Israelis and Palestinians to resume peace talks without preconditions, mentioning specifically Arab demands that Israel stop building and expanding Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.Westerwelle said a settlement freeze was part of the 2003 "roadmap" set out for peace by the West."The roadmap conditions constitute an important building block for reviving the peace process," he told reporters. "This also includes freezing of settlement activities.""This is not only the view and the position of the German government. It is also the position expressed by the European Union as a whole."The two diplomats said that they agreed in their talks on Saturday that resolving Afghanistan's problems required more money and work to help the country develop."We agreed that the (London) conference on Afghanistan must have a broad political approach," said Westerwelle."We are convinced that a political solution must be the focus of international talks, because we agree that the lives of people in Afghanistan must be improved," said Westerwelle, whose country has contributed troops to the coalition force supporting the Kabul government.Westerwelle, who was in Saudi Arabia for one day as part of a regional tour, held talks in Riyadh on regional, political and commercial issues.He and Prince Saud also said their talks addressed Iran's nuclear programme and Yemen, where domestic political strife and the growing influence of Al-Qaeda have weakened the government."We support all international efforts to stabilise the country. We are open to discussing the issue in London at the Afghanistan conference" in the British capital on January 28, Westerwelle said."What is decisive is to strengthen state institutions in such a way so that they can ensure security," he said."Stability (in Yemen) is a priority for us," added Prince Saud, whose country's armed forces have sinceovember joined the Yemeni military in battling Shiite Huthi rebels in rugged northwest Yemen.