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The strong US reaction to Israeli settlement plans was "paying off," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday, with Israeli-Palestinian negotiations expected to resume.
The chief US diplomat sounded upbeat a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telephoned her to answer US concerns about settlements in east Jerusalem amid one of the worst rows in decades between the two allies.
"What I heard from the prime minister in response for the request we made was useful and productive, and we're continuing our discussions with him and his government," Clinton told reporters in Moscow.
She pointed to the call as one reason behind US Middle East George Mitchell's visit to the region on Sunday.
Mitchell had initially been scheduled to hold talks in Israel and the West Bank this week, but his visit was postponed after Israel's interior ministry announced 1,600 new homes would be built in Arab east Jerusalem.
The March 9 announcement just as Vice President Joe Biden visited the holy city to highlight the resumption of indirect US-brokered peace talks erupted into a full-blown crisis in US-Israeli ties.
The Palestinians then threatened to pull out of the talks, the first of any kind since direct negotiations broke down with Israel's December 2008 raid of the Gaza Strip.
In an interview Friday with the BBC, Clinton said: "I think we're going to see the resumption of the negotiation track and that means that it is paying off because that's our goal.
"Let's get the parties into a discussion, let's (put) the principle issues on the table and let's begin to explore ways that we can resolve the differences," she added.
She denied speculation that President Barack Obama's administration was trying to force Netanyahu -- who visits
Washington next week -- into delivering on his commitment to peace with the Palestinians or to see his right-wing coalition collapse.
"We're not taking any position and we have no particular stake in who the Israelis choose to govern them," Clinton told the BBC during her second day in the Russian capital.
"I think that different parts of government make action or statements that are not in the best interest of the government as a whole.
"And I think what the prime minister has said repeatedly is that his government and he personally are committed to pursuing these negotiations and he just has to make sure that he brings in everyone else," she added.
"That's his responsibility, it's not something that the United States can or is interested in doing."
In a tense 40-minute phone call a week ago, Clinton had asked Netanyahu to reverse course after his government announced the plans for new settler homes in east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as the capital of their future state.
No details emerged from Netanyahu's call with Clinton but her spokesman Philip Crowley said "they discussed specific actions that might be taken to improve the atmosphere for progress toward peace."
Officials said Clinton and Netanyahu would continue their discussions next week when Netanyahu visits
Washington for the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the top pro-Israeli lobby.
There was no immediate sign that Obama would meet with Netanyahu.
Last year, Israel imposed a 10-month moratorium on new settlements in the West Bank. It made no such commitment for east Jerusalem, which it considers part of its undivided capital.
