Israel plans to build 3,500 new homes in the West Bank to cement its hold on Jerusalem, government sources said on Monday

Haaretz reports.

The blueprint for two new neighborhoods linking the settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim to East Jerusalem appeared to flout the U.S.-backed peace road map whose final vision is disputed by Israel and the Palestinians.

The road map requires a halt to settlement-building on land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which Palestinians want as part of a future state.

But U.S. President George W. Bush said in 2004 that Israel, which intends to quit the occupied Gaza Strip this year, could expect to keep some West Bank settlement blocs under an accord.