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The Quartet for the Middle East urged Israel Friday to stop building settlements and set a bold target for a final deal with the Palestinians by 2012 as it tried to kickstart the stalled peace process.

An Israeli announcement last week of the construction of 1,600 new settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem led the Palestinians to call for a halt to peace talks and precipitated the worst crisis in US-Israeli relations in years.

"The Quartet urges the government of Israel to freeze all settlement activity," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said after the meeting of the Quartet of the United States, the United Nations, European Union and Russia.

He said at the meeting hosted by Russia that Israel should also halt natural settlement growth, dismantle outposts erected since March 2001 and refrain from demolitions and evictions in east Jerusalem.

East Jerusalem is the mainly Arab half of the Holy City which was captured and then annexed by Israel after the 1967 Six Day War.

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The Quartet "reaffirms that unilateral actions taken by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community," Ban added, reading from the Quartet's statement.

Condemning the new settlement plan, the statement noted that Israel's annexation of east Jerusalem was not recognised by the international community and the city's status had to be resolved through negotiations.

With the peace process stagnant, the Quartet also urged Israel and the Palestinians to resume talks on final status issues with the aim of finding a settlement "within 24 months", Ban said.

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He said such a settlement would end "the occupation which began in 1967 and result in the emergence of an independent, democratic and viable Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel".

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The timing of Israel's settlement announcement had infuriated Washington -- Israel's chief ally -- coming as US Vice President Joe Biden visited the region.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Clinton late Thursday following a tense call last week when she had asked him to order a halt to the settler plans.

Clinton on Friday described the relationship between Israel and the United States as "deep and broad, strong and enduring" but stood behind the Quartet's call for a freeze on all settlement activity.

Related article: British PM's 'grave concern' over Israeli settlements

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat welcomed the Quartet's call, but asked also for a mechanism to "make sure that Israel does effectively halt completely all settlement activity in the West Bank and east Jerusalem."

In London, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown voiced "grave concern" over the Israeli settlement building in east Jerusalem, saying it should be stopped if it is a barrier to peace talks.

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As well as Clinton and Ban, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton were present at the meeting along with former British prime minister Tony Blair, who is the Quartet's representative.

Ashton's visit to Moscow came a day after she made a rare trip by a top foreign official to the Gaza Strip that was overshadowed by fresh violence.

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip on Thursday killed a Thai agricultural worker just a few kilometres (miles) from the Gaza border and hours later, Israeli aircraft hit several targets across the tiny Palestinian territory.

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Ban said the quartet was "deeply concerned" about the situation in Gaza, "including the humanitarian and human rights situation of the civilian population."

Amid an intense flurry of diplomatic activity, Ban is to visit the Middle East, including Gaza, the West Bank and Israel, this weekend.

A senior Palestinian official told AFP on Thursday that the United States' special Middle East envoy George Mitchell would arrive in the region on Sunday for a visit that had been delayed by the row with Israel.

AFP