BEIJING, March 22 (Xinhuanet) -- US President has delivered a speech to i students in Jerusalem on the second day of his Middle East tour. Obama called on the Israeli government to stop building settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. But in a joint news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, he urged Palestinians to drop the settlement issue as a precondition for talks.

The US President has appealed directly to the Israeli people to put themselves in the shoes of stateless Palestinians.

Barack Obama, US President, said, "Just as Israeli built a state in their homeland, Palestinians have a right to be a free people in their own land.”

In the emotional speech to young audience in Jerusalem, the US President said Israel should recognize that compromise was necessary for peace.

Speaking in Ramallah after talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas earlier in the day, Obama said Jewish settlement activity was not appropriate for peace. However, he told Palestinians they should stop demanding a halt to settlement as a precondition to talks.

He said Washington was committed to establishing an independent, viable and sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel. But he said achieving that goal would not be easy.

Abbas reiterated that continual settlement building was illegal and an obstacle to peace negotiations.

Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian President, said, "Settlements are illegal and all of the settlement activities are illegal. We hope that the Israeli government can understand this and we hope that they will listen to many opinions in Israel itself who say that the settlements are illegal. "

Obama’s three-day visit to Israel and the West Bank is his first in his second term as president. Palestinian-Israeli negotiations came to a halt in 2010 over expanded Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.

(Source: CNTV.cn)