The Middle East Quartet has urged Israel to stop building Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Quartet--the European Union, Russia, the United Nations, the United States--launched the plea during a meeting in the Italian city of Trieste aimed at reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

US President Barack Obama has also called on Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt all settlement activity. The American president also insisted on the need to create a Palestinian state. Last week, Mr Netanyahu accepted the creation of a Palestinian state provided it did not have its own army. The Israeli PM rejected, however, stopping the expansion of settlements, saying they were the result of what he called "natural demographic growth".

Photograph from Flickr