Pyongyang, August 4 (KCNA) -- The deputy chief of the mission of China at the UN at a recent meeting of the UNSC urged Israel to stop at once the construction of settlements.

Israel's expansion of settlements is a stumbling block lying in the way of resuming the Palestine-Israel peace talks, he noted, and continued:

China calls upon all parties concerned to settle the Palestine-Israel disputes through political and diplomatic channels on the basis of the UN resolutions, the "peace-for-land principle" and the "Arab peace initiative", etc. and thus build a Palestinian independent state with full sovereignty, he stressed.