RIYADH, Aug 2 (AFP) - Saudi Arabia accused Israel on Monday of "annexing" Palestinian villages through its controversial West Bank barrier and supported Khartoum's efforts to resolve the crisis in Sudan's embattled region of Darfur.
"The kingdom followed with deep concern the developments in the Palestinian territories and the constant Israeli escalation against the Palestinian people," said a statement issued after the kingdom's weekly cabinet session.
It denounced "Israeli policies aiming at changing realities, including the Israeli government plan to build a Jewish settlement in occupied east Jerusalem ... and annexing a number of Palestinian villages with the racist Israeli barrier."
The cabinet meeting in the Red Sea city of Jeddah also discussed the Darfur crisis, with Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz saying that "efforts should focus on ways to end the human tragedy" in the embattled region of western Sudan.
The kingdom voiced support for the efforts of the Sudanese government and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), and for "refraining from using the language of threats which complicates things".
On Friday, the UN Security Council passed a resolution giving the Khartoum government 30 days to bring under control the situation in Darfur, where it has been accused of arming and backing the Janjaweed militia in a campaign to exterminate the black non-Arab African population.
The conflict, described by UN agencies as the trigger for currently the world's worst current humanitarian crisis, has claimed up to 50,000 lives and driven more than a million people from their homes.
Tens of thousands have fled across the border into neighbouring Chad.