JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he has been discussing legislation with the United States that would effectively annex settlements in the occupied West Bank, a spokesman said.
The move would severely damage remaining prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and draw international outrage.
"Regarding the issue of applying sovereignty, I can tell you that I have for some time been speaking with the Americans about it," Netanyahu told lawmakers from his Likud party, according to comments relayed by a spokesman.
However, the White House flatly denied Israeli claims that talks are underway to annex land claimed by Palestinians, in a rare public show of disunity.
That was denied by White House spokesman Josh Raffel, who works closely with Jared Kushner. "Reports that the United States discussed with Israel an annexation plan for the West Bank are false," he said. "The United States and Israel have never discussed such a proposal, and the president's focus remains squarely on his Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative."
Netanyahu said he wanted to coordinate any such "historic" move with the United States because of the country's strategic importance to Israel, his spokesman said.
Some Israeli media interpreted the comments as the first time Netanyahu expressed support for annexing the settlements. Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, condemned the remarks as amounting to "land theft" with US complicity.
The comments come with Netanyahu under pressure from right-wing politicians to move ahead with legislation that would apply Israeli sovereignty to settlements in the West Bank.
Two lawmakers, including one from Netanyahu's party, have proposed such legislation.
Netanyahu blocked it from being advanced on Sunday, with officials citing the need to focus on security issues following a confrontation that led to Israeli air strikes in Syria at the weekend.
Unilateral annexation of settlements would be sure to draw international outrage, though Netanyahu's government has been bolstered by the unstinting support of US President Donald Trump. Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December in a move praised by Netanyahu as "historic" but denounced by the Palestinians and most of the rest of the world.
But as Netanyahu's comments made headlines on Monday and US officials failed to confirm the discussions he spoke of, an Israeli official issued a clarification. Netanyahu "did not present the United States with specific annexation proposals, and in any case the United States did not give its consent to the proposals", the official said on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday at the start of talks with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas that he had discussed the Middle East conflict with his US counterpart Donald Trump.
"I just spoke with American President Trump," Putin told Abbas before continuing the talks behind closed doors. "Obviously we spoke about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." The Palestinian leader was visiting Moscow in a bid to secure Putin's support after Trump outraged the Palestinians and their allies by recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital. "It is very important for us to know your personal opinion in order to set the record straight and put in place a common approach to solve this problem," Putin told his guest.
Abbas has refused any contact with Trump's administration since Washington's decision at the end of last year.
"Given the atmosphere created by the United State's actions, we... refuse any cooperation with the United States as a mediator," said Abbas.
"In case of an international meeting, we ask that the United States be not the only mediators, but just one of the mediators."
His meeting with Putin came two weeks after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also visited Moscow.

"Israel updated the United States on various proposals raised in the (parliament), and the United States expressed its clear position that it seeks to advance President Trump's peace plan."
The official added that Netanyahu's position "is that if the Palestinians persist in their refusal to negotiate peace, Israel will present its own alternatives". While Israel would expect to retain certain settlements in any two-state peace deal, longstanding international consensus has been that their status must be negotiated.
The same consensus has been in place for decades regarding the status of Jerusalem, with the Palestinians wanting the Israeli-annexed eastern sector of the city as the capital of their future state.
Israeli settlements are located in what is known as Area C of the West Bank, which accounts for more than 60 percent of the Palestinian territory.
Annexing all settlements would leave little space for a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu heads what is seen as the most right-wing government in Israeli history, and prominent ministers openly oppose a Palestinian state.
Those who oppose a Palestinian state advocate for Israel to annex most of the West Bank, citing Jews' historical ties to the land from the biblical era.
Netanyahu says he wants the Palestinians to govern themselves, but in recent months has declined to specify whether that would mean an independent Palestinian state or some lesser form of autonomy.
He has stressed recently that Israel must retain security control in the Palestinian territories under any peace arrangement.
While Trump has offered strong support of Israel, he said in an interview published Sunday that he was "not necessarily sure" the country was seeking to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
"Right now, I would say the Palestinians are not looking to make peace," Trump said in the interview with right-wing Israeli paper Israel Hayom.
"And I am not necessarily sure that Israel is looking to make peace."
In a rare rebuke, he also said Israeli settlement building "complicates" peace efforts.