Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (right) and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Cairo on 4 November 2009
Egypt was the last stop on Hillary Clinton's Middle East tour
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on a visit to Cairo, has reiterated Washington's call for an end to Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank.
She spoke after meeting President Hosni Mubarak, on the last stop of her Middle East tour to revive peace talks.
Mrs Clinton upset Arabs at the weekend when she praised Israel for making "unprecedented" settlement concessions.
The Palestinians are refusing to join peace talks until Israel halts the settlement activity.
"We do not accept the legitimacy of settlement activity and we have a very firm belief that ending all settlement activity, current and future, would be preferable," Mrs Clinton said.
Har Homa settlement, West Bank
Clinton tries to keep peace alive
"Getting into final status negotiations will allow us to bring an end to settlement activity."
US President Barack Obama began his drive to restart peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians with repeated calls for a complete halt to Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
But Israel refused, saying it would scale back building work but wanted to complete housing units still in progress.
It also said it did not regard East Jerusalem as a settlement, implying that construction would continue in the area Palestinians want for the capital of their future state.
In September, Washington changed tack, continuing to call for an end to settlement activity, but saying the most important thing was to get the negotiations going again.
Mrs Clinton's visit to Cairo was a last minute addition to her Middle East tour.
She met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit and intelligence chief Omar Suleiman.
Egypt has been attempting to broker a unity deal between the rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas.
On Saturday, Mrs Clinton met Mr Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in a visit seen as intending to shore up attempts to restart peace talks.
She underscored the Obama administration's perceived shift in emphasis when she called on Palestinians to drop their precondition for talks and hailed an Israeli offer to restrict settlement activity as "unprecedented".
Talk about talking out of both sides of your mouth..
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