Dakar: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas slammed Israel today for implementing policies he described as "ethnic cleansing" in predominantly Palestinian east Jerusalem, raising taxes and forcing the Palestinians living there to stop construction.

"Our people in Jerusalem are under an ethnic cleansing campaign," Abbas said in a speech as dozens of Islamic countries gathered for a two-day summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in the Senegalese capital, Dakar.

"They are suffering from a series of decisions like tax hikes and construction prohibitions."

Abbas said Palestinians "are facing a campaign of annihilation" by the Israeli state.

In Washington, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that "we would not use that term to describe the situation. I think it s probably an example of some overheated political rhetoric."

"This cuts to a lot of different issues with respect to borders and a lot of fundamental issues that exist between the Israelis and the Palestinians," McCormack said.

At the summit of the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, the world s largest Muslim organisation, Abbas appealed to Muslim leaders for support during a "difficult junction" in the Mideast peace process.

Source : PTI