Bethlehem - Ma’an - Palestinian caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was in Washington this week meeting with high-level officials in an effort to push the American administration to act on its request that Israel halt settlement construction.

Fayyad met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, National Security Advisor General James Jones, as well as Congressional leaders.

His meeting with Clinton focused on the “importance of insisting that Israel implement its obligations, specifically a complete halt to settlement activity and incursions, as outlined in the Road Map,” the Prime Minister’s office in Ramallah said in a statement.

Throughout his meetings Fayyad is said to have maintained his position that the halt to settlement construction is a “prelude to a serious and balanced political process which should lead to the end of the Israeli occupation.”