Denials by the French president's office cannot forestall a media outrage at Nicolas Sarkozy's scathing remarks against the country's allies.

Top Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erakat says the new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is no partner for peace. "Until the (Benjamin) Netanyahu government unequivocally affirms its support for the two-state solution, implements Israel's roadmap obligations and abides by previous agreements, Palestinians have no partner for peace," top negotiator Saeb Erakat said. He made the remarks after meeting with US special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Mitchell held talks with the officials from the Palestinian Authority on Friday after two days of separate meetings with Israeli officials. During his meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders Mitchell stressed that a two-state solution is the only solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Prime Minister Netanyahu told Mitchell that the Palestinians should "recognize the state of Israel as the state of the Jewish people." In response to the Netanyahu's demand, Palestinians said they never recognize Israel and Erakat stressed that the demand does not figure in any peace treaty and does not conform to international law. "Netanyahu's new 'condition' serves no other purpose than to stall progress towards negotiations, and to save his government from having to deal with the real issues," Erakat said. Erakat named the issues as "Israel's refusal to end its occupation, to freeze all settlement activity, to lift restrictions on Palestinian movement, and to unequivocally support the two-state solution." The largely right-wing cabinet of Israel's hawkish prime minister has halted the previous negotiations over setting up an independent Palestinian state and called previous US-backed agreements into question. On April 1, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that Tel Aviv was not bound by the 2007 US-backed Annapolis deal, under which Israel agreed to the creation of a Palestinian state. He said the peace process was at a "dead end." Following the comments by Lieberman, former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni who was the country's top negotiator in peace talks with Palestinians, said that her successor's position on the 2007 Annapolis deal "showed the world that we are not a partner [for peace]." At the US-hosted Annapolis Conference, Israel pledged to halt all settlement activities in East al-Quds and the West Bank. East al-Quds is widely viewed as the capital of Palestine's future state. Israel has in recent months announced the construction of hundreds of new Jewish homes in al-Quds, in breach of United Nations Security Council resolutions.