Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Sunday that Israel would not restrict construction in occupied east Jerusalem, a step the US has requested - sticking to a tough position hours before he sets off on his first trip to Washington since a diplomatic row erupted between the two allies. Netanyahu also said he was willing to broaden indirect talks with the Palestinians to include the main issues dividing them. Netanyahu originally had wanted to put off a discussion of issues like the status of contested east Jerusalem, final borders and the fate of Palestinian refugees until direct talks are launched. Netanyahu's refusal to budge on occupied east Jerusalem - whose fate lies at the crux of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - defies a US demand to cancel a major new housing project at the heart of the feud. But in confidential talks, he apparently offered enough steps to prompt US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to call them “useful and productive” and dispatch an envoy back to the region this week. Before meeting with Israel's defense minister Sunday, US envoy George Mitchell described ties between the US and Israel as “unshakable.” UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who was touring the Gaza Strip on Sunday, told reporters that Netanyahu would be meeting US President Barack Obama this week. The prime minister's office had no immediate confirmation; Netanyahu takes off for Washington later Sunday to address the annual conference of the pro-Israel lobby in the US. Ban wants a nearly three-year blockade of Gaza lifted and said Israel's recent opening of Gaza's borders to allow in window frames and other supplies to complete a 151-apartment UN housing project in southern Gaza was “a drop in a bucket of water.” The blockade causes “unacceptable suffering” and “undercuts moderates and encourages extremists,” he said after visiting the project in the Khan Younis refugee camp. Netanyahu's office also denied reports that he promised to slow construction in the city's eastern sector. “Our policy on Jerusalem is the same as that of all previous Israeli governments in the past 42 years and it hasn't changed,” he told his Cabinet at the start of its weekly meeting. “As far as we are concerned, building in Jerusalem is like building in Tel Aviv. We made this clear to the US administration.”
