WASHINGTON: The United States on Monday repeated its call on Israel to put an end to Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

“The policy of the United States government for many decades has been: no more settlements, that’s not something that is new with this administration,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.

Gibbs made the remarks hours before US President Barack Obama meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.

The US-Israeli summit meeting comes as the Obama administration is pressing the Israeli government and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to re-launch their long-stalled peace talks.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to step down because of the Netanyahu-led government’s refusal to fully freeze Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank.

Some 450,000 Israelis live in more than 100 settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.