Israeli PM holds cabinet meeting in West Bank

JERUSALEM, Sept 16 (AP): Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his final pre-election Cabinet meeting on Sunday in a part of the West Bank he has vowed to annex if re-elected and laid out a plan to build a new settlement there, amid a last-ditch drive to galvanize his nationalistic base.

The meeting, along with the new pledges, came despite an international outcry over Netanyahu's promise to annex the West Bank's Jordan Valley. Annexing the area, considered to be the heartland of any future Palestinian state, would all but extinguish any remaining Palestinian hopes for independence.

Netanyahu has staged a flurry of media appearances to beseech supporters to vote in large numbers to stave off the prospect of a left-wing government he says will endanger the country's security.

A centerpiece of his late-hour agenda has been the pledge to extend Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and to annex Jewish settlements.