Israel announced on Tuesday that it would build 1,600 new housing units in Ramat Shlomo, a religious Jewish settlement in an area of the occupied West Bank annexed to Jerusalem by Israel.

The announcement drew condemnation from Joe Biden, the US vice-president who is on a visit to the region partly to throw his weight behind US-brokered "proximity" talks between the Israelis and Palestinians that were announced just on Sunday.

In an interview with Al Jazeera from the occupied West Bank, Biden explains why he condemned Israel's construction announcement (11 mar 2010).