Ban Ki-moon urges Israel to freeze all settlement activity

It is also contrary to Israel's commitments under the international plan for Middle East peace, known as the Road Map, and the Annapolis process, the statement added, referring to the peace process launched in the United States city of that name late year.

Ban urged Israel to heed the call of the Middle East Quartet --the diplomatic grouping comprising the UN, the European Union, Russia and the United States -- to "freeze all settlement activity, including natural growth, and to dismantle outposts erected since March 2001."