Ramallah - European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in Ramallah Saturday that any government in Israel should continue to honour commitments made by previous governments.

After meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Solana told reporters that the international community would deal with the next Israeli government "according to its programme and platform."

He said he hoped the incoming government of rightwing Israeli leader Benyamin Netanyahu would honour past commitments of a two- state solution and also freeze settlement activities in the West Bank.

For his part, Palestinian leader Abbas said a freeze on Israeli settlement activities "is a primary demand we raised with (US peace envoy George) Mitchell and with Solana."

"We demand that the next Israeli government honour past commitments so that we will not return to point zero," said Abbas in the press meeting with Solana, adding this government should also "accept the two-state solution, stop settlements and remove checkpoints."

Abbas met Mitchell Friday night in Ramallah and according to Palestinian officials, Abbas told the US envoy that he would be ready to deal with any government in Israel that accepted previous commitments and halted settlement activities.

Meanwhile, shops, businesses and schools in the West Bank shut down for the day Saturday heeding a call by the Palestinian Authority to observe a general strike protesting an Israeli decision to demolish 88 homes in the Jerusalem area village of Silwan.

The Israeli government informed Palestinian residents of Silwan last week that it intended to demolish their homes to build a national park.

Fakhri Abu Diab told Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa that Israeli officials informed representatives of the area residents that they can either leave on their own and find alternative housing elsewhere or become homeless after Israeli authorities forcibly evict them.

Abu Diab said the residents are determined to fight the order, stressing that most of the more than 1500 residents targeted in the measure would have no where to go if they are forced out of the homes in which they have lived for decades.

Palestinians have accused Israel of ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem, which it occupied in the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war, in an attempt to keep a Jewish majority in the area of the city it annexed soon after its occupation.

Israel has surrounded the city with settlements built on expropriated Palestinian land and which now house more than 200,000 Israelis.

Israel says Silwan, located just south of the Old City wall of Jerusalem where 45,000 Palestinians live, is the location of the biblical City of King David. Israel has been carrying excavations in that area and Palestinians have expressed concern that the excavations done under their homes may lead to the buildings' collapse. (dpa)