The United States has asked Israel for a commitment to a one-year-long freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank, yet disagreements remain between the two allies, reported local daily Ha'aretz on Thursday.

U.S. special envoy George Mitchell raised the proposal when meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak last week, arguing that such a move by Israel would in return pave the way for Arab states to make compromises and confidence-building gestures toward Israel, said the report.

The Israeli leaders did not reject the U.S. request, yet expressed reservations over some of the details, the report quoted "a senior source" as saying, adding that the Israeli side would only agree to a settlement construction freeze of six months at most.

Gaps still remain between the two allies on the future of the 2,500 housing units already under construction in the settlements. "Israel wants to complete all of these homes, while Mitchell seeks to reduce the number to be completed as much as possible," said Ha'aretz.

Meanwhile, Israel is highlighting the need for an exit strategy in case that the current peace efforts fail to achieve desirable results. Yet the U.S. side has "not yet said clearly what will happen at the end of the freeze period," according to Ha'aretz.

The settlement issue has generated notable tensions between Israel and the United States, which has vowed to help revive the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab peace processes as soon as possible and has been urging Israel to freeze all construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The two allies will continue negotiations over this thorny issue, and Netanyahu and Mitchell are scheduled to talk again in London on Aug. 26, said the report, quoting "a highly-placed source" in Israel as saying that he expected agreement on the issue at the meeting.

Source: Xinhua