Ramallah, March 9 (IANS): The Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs on Monday held Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fully responsible for the failure of the Middle East peace process.

Netanyahu has to be fully responsible for the failure of the peace negotiations and the opportunities to renew them, Xinhua news agency cited the ministry as saying in a statement.

It added that Netanyahu ruined the US and international efforts to make the talks a success.

During Netanyahu's term as prime minister, "the goal of his government has been to empower the occupation, expand the settlement building and Judaising the Palestinian territories under full Israeli security control", it said.

The ministry called on the international community "to carefully understand the Palestinians' intentions to join the United Nations agencies and the International Criminal Court to gain their legitimate rights".

The direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, sponsored by the US, had been stalled for almost one year, after deep disputes on such issues as halting Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories.