Netanyahu takes Kerry's restraint to new level and orders settlement 'freeze' - reports

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a freeze on publishing tenders for new West Bank settler homes to avoid hampering US efforts to renew peace talks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered to freeze tenders for West Bank settlement construction, a report said.

Amid U.S. efforts to revive the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, Netanyahu announced his decision at a recent meeting with Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel, Army Radio reported Tuesday.

Netanyahu's request came despite guarantees he made to Ariel prior to the elections that Israel will construct hundreds of new housing units in the West Bank in response to the United Nations upgrading the Palestinians' status, the radio report said.

Ariel said to Army Radio that he told Netanyahu that his party (Bayit Hayehudi -- the Jewish Home) would weigh whether to support the national budget for 2013 if funds aren't allocated for construction in the West Bank.

"In talks with the prime minister we decided that if no provisions are made in the budget for building in Judea and Samaria, we will consider whether to support the national budget or not," Ariel said.

In a move to push the peace process forward, after U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Israel in March, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry asked Netanyahu to "restrain" construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, but didn't ask for a settlement construction freeze, Haaretz said.

An unnamed senior U.S. official told the newspaper "the fact is that since the Obama visit there are no new announcements and everything is quiet on the ground when it comes to settlement construction."