The United States has voiced its "dismay" over Israel's approval of 900 additional housing units at a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem.

美国对以色列批准在东耶路撒冷的犹太人定居点建立900座额外的房屋表示“沮丧”。

The Israeli government considers Gilo an integral part of Jerusalem

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the move makes it "more difficult" to revive（复生，苏醒） Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

He was speaking shortly after planning applications for the new units had been approved by Israel's interior ministry¹（内务部）.

The planning and construction committee authorised the expansion of Gilo, which is built on land captured in 1967.

The land was later annexed²（吞并，附加） to the Jerusalem municipality（自治区）.

With the project yet to be reviewed, the public can still make objections.

Settlements on occupied territory are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes（争论） this.

It is the second time in two months that the Obama administration has spoken out on settlements.

In September the White House said it regretted reports that Israel planned to approve new construction in the West Bank.

The BBC's Paul Adams in Washington says the conventional wisdom in the US is that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has successfully thwarted³（反对，阻碍） Barack Obama's first foray（侵略，掠夺） into the stalled Middle East peace process, rebuffing（断然拒绝） American calls for a complete settlements freeze.

But some Washington observers say it's too early to write off the president's efforts, he says.

They believe Mr Obama is playing a long game and that the frosty（严寒的，冷淡的） relations between Mr Netanyahu and the White House could cause problems for the Israeli leader in the future, our correspondent adds.

'Israel's capital'

Israeli media reported earlier that the government had rejected a request from Washington to freeze the construction work at Gilo.

Mr Obama's Middle East envoy⁴, George Mitchell, is said to have made the request to Mr Netanyahu at a meeting in London on Monday.

Mr Netanyahu replied that the project did not require government approval and that Gilo was "an integral part（不可分割的部分） of Jerusalem", according to Israel Army Radio.

His spokesman, Mark Regev, declined to comment on（拒绝就……发表评论） the reports, but repeated Israel's refusal to include areas annexed to Jerusalem as part of any accommodation of Mr Obama's call for "restraint（抑制，束缚）" in settlement construction.

"Prime Minister Netanyahu... is willing to adopt the policy of the greatest possible restraint concerning growth in the West Bank, but this applies to the West Bank," he told the Reuters news agency. "Jerusalem is Israel's capital and will remain as such."