Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday that he is willing to resume peace negotiations with Israel as soon as the latter freezes settlements activities and accepts the two-state solution.

Abbas's remarks were made to reporters shortly after Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced that his government gave a green light to build 50 housing units in the settlement Adam in the West Bank.

"We told the Israeli side frankly that the Arab and Islamic countries would accept full normalization with Israel if it withdraws its army from the Arab and Palestinian occupied territories," said Abbas.

The Middle East peace process had been installed since last year, when Israel insisted to continue building into West Bank settlements and launched a series of military offensives on the blockaded Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

"The Palestinian (National) Authority has been committed to the first chapter of the Road Map plan for peace in the Middle East, while the Israeli government hasn't yet shown any commitment," Abbas told reporters in Ramallah.

The first phase of the Road Map plan says that the Palestinians carry out a series of security measures in the West Bank to restore security, including demilitarizing armed groups and detaining wanted figures.

The plan says, in return, Israel stops all kinds of construction activities of settlements, evacuates illegal settlement posts and pulls out Israeli army forces from West Bank cities.

Asked about the dialogue that is going on in Cairo with rival Hamas movement, Abbas said, "Fatah delegation headed to Cairo with firm instructions to exert every possible effort to succeed the inter-dialogue and reach an agreement."

"We have a real and serious desire to end the current rift between Gaza and the West Bank in order to be able to tell the world that we deserve an independent Palestinian state," said Abbas.

(Xinhua News Agency June 30, 2009)