"The building freeze is over," said Danny Danon, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, as balloons were released into the air at sundown in the red-roofed West Bank settlement of Revava.

"Today, we mark the resumption of building in Judea and Samaria," he bellowed, using the biblical names for the West Bank, an area captured by Israel in a 1967 war.

Mr. Netanyahu had urged Israeli settlers to show restraint after a limited building freeze expired at midnight yesterday, a plea that appeared aimed at persuading Palestinians not to quit peace talks.

But at Revava, near the West Bank city of Nablus, residents expressed their defiance at a ground breaking ceremony, where a mixer poured concrete into a hole in the ground to begin the construction of a creche.

While the act itself was symbolic, settlers said they would soon begin building about 2,000 homes across the West Bank.

Permits for these homes were issued before Mr. Netanyahu, under U.S. pressure, called a partial building freeze last year.

The festivities were attended by thousands bused in for the occasion.

They coincided with U.S. efforts, still afoot, to prolong the construction hiatus in order to avert a Palestinian walkout from the peace talks. The Israeli leader has resisted calls from U.S. President Barack Obama to extend the construction freeze, but the United States said late yesterday it was trying to ensure both sides continued to negotiate, despite Israel's decision.

"We keep pushing for the talks to continue," said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley in a brief statement.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, who had vowed to abandon peace talks if Israel resumes building, stepped back from the brink, telling Agence France-Presse in Paris that he would meet top Arab diplomats on Oct. 4 before deciding his next move.

But he also renewed his call for a continuation of the freeze. "If Israel does not continue the settlement freeze, the peace process will be a waste of time," Mr. Abbas told Jewish leaders in Paris.