The Palestinian Authority in Bethlehem, and Israel, which controls Jerusalem's Old City, adopted the delicate status quo in operation since the British mandate, under which no changes, however minor, can be made without the approval of all three denominations.
The result has been that the Church of the Nativity has fallen into a dangerous state of disrepair.
Last month, after years of arguments, the sects finally reached agreement to replace the church's leaking roof. The renovations, planned for next year, will mark the first major repairs in 150 years.
In a separate development, the Jerusalem municipality has approved the construction of another 130 homes in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Gilo, built over the Green line, on land captured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day Arab-Israeli war. The move is likely to anger the Palestinians, who insist that Israel must halt all settlement construction before direct peace talks can resume.
An announcement by Israel earlier this month that it intended to build more than a thousand new homes in West Bank settlements and east Jerusalem was condemned by Britain, , which along with the other EU members of the United Nations Security Council -France, Germany and Portugal ? issued a statement saying they were "dismayed by these wholly negative developments."
They said Israel's move to accelerate the construction of settlements in the West Bank "sends a devastating message" and they called on the Israeli government to cancel the construction.
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