Ban called on Israeli authorities to stop settlements including natural growth [AFP]

The Quartet, comprised of the European Union, Russia, the United States and the United Nations, made the appeal on Friday in the northeastern Italian city of Trieste.

The group is holding the meeting in an attempt to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said: "We are urging Israeli authorities to stop settlements including natural growth and remove all these blocks and open the crossings.

"This will be the first beginning to make sure all our proposals are implemented."

Ban said the Middle East peace sponsors were looking for "meaningful signs of progress in the coming few months" and reiterated their support for an international peace conference to be held in Moscow this year.

"We are trying very hard to seize on the very favourable political atmosphere" following Barack Obama's, the US president, speech in Cairo earlier this month.

In the speech, Obama pledged to pursue a broad-based, comprehensive peace agreement in the Middle East.

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