New York: In a rebuff to critics of India's growing friendship with Israel, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on September 24 unequivocally came out in support of Palestinian statehood and said that the violence in the region must stop.

Notwithstanding its friendly relations with Israel, Vajpayee asserted India's principled stand on Palestine and said, "We continue to champion the cause of the Arab world."

"An Independent Palestinian state should be established, those who have been uprooted should be resettled and violence must stop," he said at a community reception hosted by India's Ambassador to US, Lalit Mansingh.

Violence is no solution to any problem, and "whatever is happening there, we are against it", said Vajpayee, who is also expected to refer to the West Asia crisis in his address to United Nations General Assembly.

PTI