Ramallah  - European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Monday night that Europe supports Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's vision of an independent Palestinian state that could be established within two years.

Speaking at a news conference after an hour-long meeting with Fayyad in Ramallah, Solana said that "we support the Fayyad plan. It is very good and it shows the fact that the Palestinian government is functioning."

Fayyad, who last Tuesday revealed a plan that envisions the establishment of the foundations of a viable Palestinian state within two years, criticized Israeli officials for downplaying his plan.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said earlier Monday, after meeting Solana in Jerusalem, that the Fayyad plan was "unilateral" and that Israel would not take it lightly if Fayyad proceeds to implement it.

"Establishing the state and its institutions is a Palestinian responsibility," Fayyad said in the joint press conference with Solana. "We are interested in this project and we are working towards implementing it," he stressed.

Responding to Lieberman's criticism, Fayyad said that "if this was a unilateral act, then it is a positive unilateral act, which aims at ending the (Israeli) occupation."

Both Solana and Fayyad also expressed their opposition to Israeli settlement activities, describing them as illegal.

Solana said be believes Israel may stop settlement construction as part of a United States plan to revive the stalled Mideast peace process.

The United States has demanded Israel halt all settlement construction in the occupied West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that while Israel will build no new settlements, it wants to continue with construction inside existing ones, to allow for population expansion, so-called "natural growth."   dpa