RAMALLAH, June 8, 2009 (WAFA)- Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai seeks to exploit all the resources of his ministry, 'its branches and its influences over local government' to expand Jewish colonies in the West Bank, Haaretz Israeli Daily said, today.

Yishai, who is also chairman of Shas, made the promise last Thursday to the heads of the Yesha colonial council. His party is concerned by the freeze on construction that has been in effect since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office, which Yishai said is 'drying out' the colonies.

Haaretz has learned that Yishai has instructed officials at the Israeli Interior Ministry to come up with ways to help colonizerss, by allowing continued construction within the major West Bank colonial blocs where building has stopped as a result of American pressure.

Yishai wants to include additional built-up areas within the city limits of towns in the major colonial blocs, effectively expanding their boundaries. Yishai is hoping to allocate funding from the 'interior minister's reserves' to benefit the West Bank colonies. These funds, amounting to several tens of millions of New Israeli Shekels, are distributed at the discretion of the minister without having to meet certain usual criteria.