AFP - The Saudi cabinet said on Monday that Israel's expansion of Jewish settlements is preventing efforts to revive stalled peace talks with the Palestinians, the official SPA news agency reported.

Israel's continuing expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem "is a major obstacle to the resumption of the peace process," SPA quoted a cabinet statement as saying.

Israel has come under increasing pressure to freeze settlement construction and expansion before peace talks with the Palestinians can resume. Negotiations were called off more than a year ago over the war in the Gaza Strip.

Last week US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged the Palestinians and their Arab backers to accept a resumption of talks without any preconditions such as a settlement freeze.

Representatives of the Middle East diplomatic Quartet will meet in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss a new US plan to restart the peace talks, an EU spokesman said.

On Monday, Israel's Maariv newspaper said Washington was pushing a plan that foresees reaching a final deal in two years and agreeing on permanent borders in nine months.