World Briefs

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rebuffed US calls for a full settlement freeze in the occupied West Bank and vowed not to accept limits on building of Jewish enclaves within Jerusalem.

Netanyahu's defiant stance set the stage for a possible showdown with President Barack Obama, who, in talks with the new Israeli prime minister in Washington last week, pressed for a halt to all settlement activity, including natural growth, as called for under a long-stalled peace "road map."

"The demand for a total stop to building is not something that can be justified and I don't think that anyone here at this table accepts it," Netanyahu told his cabinet, referring to Jewish settlements in the West Bank, according to an official.

MADRID - World economic recovery will be slow and rising unemployment could bring the threat of social crisis and protectionism, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in an interview with Spanish Sunday newspaper El Pais.

"What began as a great financial crisis and became a great economic crisis is now becoming a great crisis of unemployment, and if we don't take measures there is a risk of a great human and social crisis, with major political implications," he said.

"That's a good breeding ground for populist, protectionist policies," he added.

WASHINGTON - Iran could be within one to three years from developing a nuclear weapon and time is running out for diplomacy to defuse the problem, the top US military officer said on Sunday.

The assessment from Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, matched that of some independent analysts.

"Most of us believe that it's one to three years, depending on assumptions about where they are right now." Mullen said.

YANGON - Myanmar accused neighboring Thailand of meddling in its internal affairs on Sunday after Bangkok said the trial of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi threatened the junta's "honor and credibility."

Myanmar said the statement issued last week by Thailand, amid growing international outrage over Suu Kyi's trial, was factually wrong and "deviated from the practice of ASEAN."

Thailand holds the rotating chair of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), one of the few groups that allows the former Burma as a member.

"It is tantamount to interfering in Myanmar's internal affairs," said a statement read out on state-owned MRTV.