Peace talks will not slow Jerusalem building, vows Netanyahu

AFP - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Wednesday that construction would continue unabated in all of Jerusalem, as he addressed a ceremony marking the 43rd anniversary of Israel's capture of the city's Arab eastern sector.

"You can't flourish in a divided city and a flourishing city can't be divided or frozen," Netanyahu said. "We will continue to build and develop ourselves in Jerusalem," he said.

The Palestinians have warned that continued construction in east Jerusalem will torpedo newly launched indirect peace talks which are being brokered by the United States.

Israel, which captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and then annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community, lays claim to the entire city as its "eternal, indivisible capital."

The Palestinians want to make the city's eastern sector the capital of their promised state.