Tel Aviv  - Israel Monday authorized the construction of 455 new homes in West Bank settlements - ahead of a possible agreement with the United States on a temporary freeze of any further Israeli building in the occupied territory.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak signed the paperwork for the building projects, his office confirmed.

Israeli and the US representatives are negotiating a compromise under which Israel would temporarily agree to cease construction in West Bank settlements, which Washington hopes will allow a renewal of peace talks.

The houses will be built mostly in Israel's largest settlement blocs to the immediate south and east of Jerusalem, including over 160 new apartments in the Gush Etzion bloc and more than 100 in and adjacent to Ma`aleh Adumim.

But they also include a new neighbourhood of 20 houses to be built in the settlement of Maskiyot, in the Jordan Valley, to the east of the northern West Bank city of Nablus. The Palestinians have in the past vehemently protested this project, saying that since Maskiyot currently consists only of a military outpost with a religious academy - the new residential neighbourhood in effect means that Israel is building its first, formal new settlement in 13 years.

Barak also gave the go-ahead for a park for extreme sports in Ariel, the largest Jewish settlement on the northern West Bank, according to a statement from his office.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has rejected the last-minute building approvals ahead of a temporary and limited construction freeze as "unacceptable."

He has said he will not renew peace negotiations with the new Israeli government of hardline Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unless he accepts a total settlement freeze. (dpa)