"It is important to start talks without preconditions," Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told reporters following a meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in Washington on Friday.

Palestinian officials terminated peace talks during Israel's war on Gaza in December and January, which saw 1,475 killed and more than 5,000 injured, many of whom were women and children. Negotiators said they would not go back to the table unless Israel demonstrates commitment to the talks in the form of a total halt to settlement construction.

Despite promises to international actors to slow and even stop settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israel's settlement construction mushroomed in recent years, with a marked increase in construction following the Annapolis talks in 2007.

Lieberman went on to call the Palestinian requirement that settlement construction be halted before talks start an "excuse for those that try to avoid any peace talks."

The Foreign Minister grossly played down the issue of settlements, seen my many as a touchstone of the peace process, saying "It's not a main issue in our region...If I try to compare what happens now in Iran and what happens in Afghanistan and in Pakistan to the problem of the settlements, it's very clear what...must be the priority of the international community."

The current US policy on the region sees the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the key to a region-wide peace.

Lieberman is a resident of the illegal West Bank settlement of Noqedim, fifteen minutes south of Bethlehem.