(AFP) – Jan 8, 2008

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Thousands of Israeli nationalists formed a human chain around Jerusalem's Old City on Tuesday to protest at peace talks with the Palestinians ahead of a visit by US President George W. Bush.

They gathered in the cold and rain near the ancient walls of the city, holy to Christians, Jews and Muslims, to claim Israel's right to the eastern half of the city, which it occupied in the 1967 war and annexed shortly afterwards.

The international community does not recognise Israel's claim to the mostly Arab eastern sector of Jerusalem, which Palestinians have demanded as the capital of their future state.

The demonstration outside the contested city at the heart of the Middle East conflict was one of a string of rallies organised ahead of Bush's three-day visit to the region on Wednesday aimed at boosting newly revived peace talks.

"This human chain unites generations whose souls and bodies have been tied to Jerusalem," organiser Yehiel Leiter told AFP.

"We want to show on the eve of President Bush's arrival that Olmert does not represent this nation that wants to keep its eternal capital united," he said.

The rally came just as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas met in Olmert's nearby residence to discuss the peace talks, which were revived at an international conference in November.

The two leaders agreed to begin talks on the issues at the heart of the decades-old conflict -- including Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees and borders -- with the goal of reaching an agreement by the end of the year.

Hand in hand and draped in Israeli flags and golden ribbons chosen to symbolise the right-wing campaign against dividing Jerusalem, the protestors slammed the prime minister.

"Olmert, you have no mandate to divide Jerusalem," shouted many of the right-wing activists, mostly teenagers, led by former Soviet dissident and cabinet minister Natan Sharansky.

Others brandished posters reading "Bush, read your Bible. God gave Israel to the Jews."

In 1980 Israel's Knesset declared the holy city its "eternal, undivided" capital, but the international community has never recognised the move, and all foreign embassies in Israel are located in the seaside city of Tel Aviv.

Olmert has in recent months hinted that Israel would be ready to transfer several Arab neighbourhoods in east Jerusalem to Palestinian control.

But the status of the Old City, home to the Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest site, and the ruins of the Second Jewish Temple, Judaism's holiest site, has remained one of the most intractable issues of the conflict.

Right-wing activists also planned to hold a demonstration later on Tuesday in the Jewish Har Homa neighbourhood in east Jerusalem, which Israel last month decided to expand, drawing wide international criticism.

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