The Palestinians have sent a letter to the UN Security Council seeking condemnation of Israeli settlement activity, the foreign minister said on Tuesday, April 10, AFP reported.

Riyad al-Malki said Palestinian envoy to the United Nations Riyad Mansour submitted letters on Monday to the council and to UN chief Ban Ki-moon, ahead of a meeting of the peacemaking Quartet in Washington on Wednesday.

"The letters called on the international community, and particularly the Security Council, to condemn settlement activity - which is illegal - and other illegal Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinian territory," Malki told AFP.

The message also called for "urgent measures to put pressure on the occupying power, which is Israel, to compel it to stop these actions and policies immediately," he said.

The text of the letter warns that Israel's "illegal and destructive plans not only inflames tensions but further underscores the dubious nature of the occupying power's claims of readiness to negotiate a peace settlement."

It said settlement activity was part of a campaign "being deliberately waged in an attempt to seize more Palestinian land and entrench (Israel's) control over the Palestinian territory."

He said the Palestinians would seek a Quartet statement "that clearly say that the continuation of settlements is the main obstacle to the revival of real and serious negotiations."

Senior representatives of the Quartet's members - the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations - are expected to meet in Washington on Wednesday to discuss the stalled Middle East peace process.