France's President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed regret on Monday at Israel's failure to renew a freeze on settlement building on occupied Palestinian land, calling for construction to end.
"We regret that the unanimous calls for the moratorium on Israeli settlement building to be extended were not listened to. I deplore this," Sarkozy said at a joint news conference with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.
Sarkozy said the 10-month freeze "should have been extended to give negotiation a chance. I say this in front of president Abbas: 'settlement must stop'," he said.
Sarkozy said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamion Netanyahu had promised him to limit the construction in the West Bank.
At the press conference, Abbas urged the Israeli government to extend the slowdown of settlement construction for three or four months to allow for a discussion of "fundamental issues" and said that no "quick decision" would be made on whether he would leave talks.
He said he would weigh his options with Palestinian leaders before discussing the matter with the Arab League next Monday.
"We will not have any quick responses," he said. "After this chain of meetings, we might publish a position that clears up the position of the Palestinian and Arab people after Israel has refused to freeze settlements."The French president said he would telephone Netanyahu later Monday evening and will invite him and Abbas for a meeting in October in Paris.