DAMASCUS, Syria- Ma Wenpu, vice-chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress of China called on the international community to urge Israel to stop the settlement constructions on Monday.

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Israeli settlement construction was one of the issues that impede the promotion of a sustained development for peace talks, Ma said at the fifth session of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly ( APA) opened here on Monday.

Besides, he said the UN should be given a larger role in the peace talks, supervising and advancing all its processes.

The APA was born out of the Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace (AAPP) in November 2006 in Tehran. The establishment of the AAPP goes back to 1999 when a group of Asian parliamentarians decided to join forces to promote peace and human rights in Asia.