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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says settlement activity is "not helpful" in a joint news conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Tuesday (August 26), shortly after an Israeli watchdog group claims the Jewish state doubled construction in settlements. Earlier on Tuesday, Israel's Peace Now movement said Israel has nearly doubled construction this year in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank in violation of a U.S.-backed peace plan. The group, which opposes Israeli settlement on land captured in the 1967 Middle East war, timed the release of its findings to coincide with a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is pursuing an elusive Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. Livni acknowledged that settlement activity does frustrate Palestinian negotiators, but said the Israeli government policy did not promote the expansion of settlements. She also took issue with the findings of the Peace Now report. "I would like to suggest to my co-partners not to use it as an excuse, and I know that they are not using it as an excuse, but I understand the frustration sometime. But at the end of the day, Israeli government policy is not to expand settlements. It's not to build new settlements; not to confiscate land from settlements. And according to my knowledge, settlement activity is reduced in the most dramatic way, especially in parts which are on the other side of the fence. There were some small activities that are not going to influence, not the ability, nor the future border of the Palestinian state," Livni said. Secretary Rice said settlement activity was "not helpful" and called upon the Israeli and Palestinians to avoid activities that "undermine confidence" in one another. "I'm very heartened by the fact that the negotiations are serious. They are intensive. And in fact, I believe that the parties have succeeded in moving their understandings of what needs to be achieved, and indeed their positions somewhat closer together over this period of time. We're certainly not anywhere near the point where we were a year ago when we didn't even have an active process for the addressing of gaps," Rice said. Peace Now, citing information from Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, said construction had begun on more than 1,000 buildings in the West Bank since January, nearly double the number of building starts in the same period in 2007. The number of tenders published for future construction in settlements rose in the first six months of the year by 550 percent to 417 housing units compared with the same period a year ago, Peace Now said. A further 125 new structures, including trailers, had been built or placed at settlement outposts Israel's government says it never authorised, the group said. More than half of the current construction was taking place in areas beyond the settlement blocs Israel has said it intends to keep in any peace agreement with the Palestinians, Peace Now said in the eight-page report. But despite continuing differences, Rice said Israel and the Palestinians have taken important steps in their talks. "I'm very heartened by the fact that the negotiations are serious. They are intensive. And in fact, I believe that the parties have succeeded in moving their understandings of what needs to be achieved, and indeed their positions somewhat closer together over this period of time. We're certainly not anywhere near the point where we were a year ago when we didn't even have an active process for the addressing of gaps," Rice said. Palestinians say settlement building denies them land they want for a contiguous state. A U.S.-backed peace "road map" calls on Israel to halt all settlement activity in the West Bank and for Palestinians to rein in militants. Peace Now said "the construction undermines" peace negotiations by "creating facts on the ground that might prevent the possibility of an agreement". Later on Tuesday Rice is expected to travel to the West Bank city of Ramallah where she is scheduled to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Rice is making her seventh visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories this year in the long-shot U.S. effort to secure a peace agreement by December. On Monday (August 26) Rice said she still aimed for a peace deal before President George W. Bush leaves office in January but played down chances of any partial accord in time for the U.N. General Assembly, which begins in September.