GAZA Reuters - Palestinian first lady Suha Arafat on Saturday criticised U.S. first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton for saying she considered Jerusalem "the eternal and indivisible capital of Israel."

Hillary Clinton, who is exploring the possibility of running for the Senate in New York next year, said that if elected she would support a strong Israel and favour moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

"She intends by this position to provoke the feelings of Muslims, Christians and Arabs and also to obtain the support of the Jewish electorate in New York," Suha Arafat said in a statement.

She added that Arab East Jerusalem would remain the "eternal capital" of Palestine.

Hillary Clinton took the policy positions in a letter to the Orthodox Union dated July 2. The Orthodox Union represents about 750 Orthodox jewish synagogues across the United States.

U.S. policy is that Israel and the Palestinians should decide the fate of Jerusalem in talks on "final status" issues, together with borders, refugees and Jewish settlements.

U.S. leaders have said they do not want to see the city again divided, as it was between 1948 and 1967, but they have never publicly accepted the Israeli view that it is the "eternal and indivisible" capital of the Jewish state.

Palestinians see the old eastern and mainly Arab part of the city, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, as capital of a future independent Palestinian state.

State Department spokesman James Foley declined to comment on Hillary Clinton's position, saying she was expressing her personal views. Reuters