Deputy PM Chaim Ramon has acknowledged that Israel is building within settlement blocs, which he said will one day be annexed. Ramon said that parts of pre-1967 Israel will be relinquished in return for the settlement blocs retained.

Ramon's admission constitutes an acknowledgement that the Partition Wall is to be the future border of a Palestinian state.

Such an idea is not new, but this is the first time it has been expressed explicitly at so high a level of the government.