ME peace efforts teetering, warns Palestinian Premier

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad warned on Monday that peace efforts with Israel based on a two-state solution are teetering because of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

"Unfortunately a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders is teetering and risks collapsing under the weight of 170 settlements and nearly half a million settlers," he said at a conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"Time has become more pressing, as far as such a solution is concerned, with every brick added to the settlements, every new road built for the settlers and every stone lengthening the (separation) wall," he said.

The two-state solution, backed by the international community, entails the creation of an independent, viable Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel.