Amman (ANTARA News/AFP) - Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh on Tuesday denounced Israel`s decision to legalise three settler outposts in the West Bank, during talks with US envoy David Hale.

Jordan, which has a 1994 peace deal with the Jewish state, "condemns Israeli settlement activities as well as its unilateral measures," Judeh said at the meeting with Hale, state-run Petra news agency reported.

The three outposts will now join the 120 official settlements dotted across the occupied West Bank that are home to more than 342,000 people.

The Palestinians denounced the move as a response to a letter from president Mahmud Abbas demanding a halt to settlement activity if peace talks are to resume.

"The United States is committed to exerting all possible efforts to help achieve peace in the Middle East," Petra quoted Hale as saying.

Judeh also discussed the peace process with Middle East peace Quartet envoy Tony Blair, the agency said.

The minister meanwhile met with families of around 22 Jordanian prisoners in Israeli jails as well as 29 missing people there, after they demonstrated outside the ministry, saying Amman is working "to end the suffering" of the inmates.

"Organising visits to the Israeli prisons is currently being discussed," he said without elaborating. (*)

Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2012