JERUSALEM — Israel’s foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, said a new report that settlement construction in Palestinian areas has doubled over last year shouldn’t affect peace talks.

While acknowledging Palestinian frustrations over Israeli construction in the West Bank, Ms. Livni urged negotiators to avoid citing actions by the other side as excuses to bog down discussions.

“The role of leaders is to try to find a way to live in peace in the future and not to let any kind of noises that relate to the situation on the ground these days to enter the negotiations room,” Ms. Livni told reporters in a joint briefing today with Secretary of State Rice in Jerusalem.

Ms. Rice is on her seventh visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority this year, continuing a push for peace that gained traction with an American-sponsored summit in Annapolis, Maryland, in November.

The talks are dogged by a contest to succeed Israel’s Prime Minister Olmert as head of the Kadima party. Mr. Olmert has said he will resign as prime minister after the contest.

The advocacy group Peace Now released a report yesterday saying Israeli construction has increased by a factor of 1.8 over last year, based on figures from the Bureau of Statistics. Israel is constructing about 2,600 housing units in the West Bank, with about 55% of them on the eastern, Palestinian side of the barrier Israel is building, Peace Now said.

“I think it’s no secret, and I’ve said it to my Israeli counterparts, that I don’t think the settlement activity is helpful to the process,” Ms. Rice said at the briefing. “Anything that undermines confidence between the parties ought to be avoided.'”