Interior Ministry spokeswoman Efrat Orbach said plans for some 1,300 Jewish housing units in two neighborhoods on land Israel seized in a 1967 war had been made public, passing another procedural stage toward eventual construction.
She said the public could still raise objections to the plans and it could take a long time before building commenced.
"It can take months or years from this point until building can actually begin, or even before tenders for building are issued," Orbach said.
News of this latest planning move came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met US Vice President Joe Biden on the sidelines of a Jewish conference in New Orleans.
When Biden visited Israel in March, the Interior Ministry announced a plan to build 1,600 homes for Jews in an area of the West Bank that Palestinians want for a future state, seriously straining relations between Israel and the United States.
Netanyahu said at the time he had no prior knowledge of the announcement and it was not clear if his office was aware of the latest move during his visit to the United States.
Israel captured East Jerusalem, along with the West Bank, in 1967 and regards all of Jerusalem as its capital. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a state they hope to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Palestinians reacted angrily to the announcement. "We thought that Netanyahu was going to the United States to stop settlement activity and restart negotiations but it is clear to us that he is determined to destroy the talks," Saeb Erekat said.
"He has shut all the doors to negotiations and we hold him responsible for destroying them," said the chief Palestinian negotiator.
Although headlines about fresh settlement plans looked likely to embarrass the Israeli leader, Peace Now's Hagit Ofran said it was highly unlikely Netanyahu was unaware the plans would be made public during his US visit.
"He must have known, they would never dare to do this without his consent," she said of the plans published by the District Planning Committee, a body which falls under Israel's Interior Ministry.
The Interior Ministry spokeswoman said the plans had been signed off six months ago, but details were only made public late last week when an official notice was published in two newspapers.
Direct peace talks which began in early September quickly ran aground when an Israeli moratorium on West Bank settlement construction expired six weeks ago, prompting the Palestinians to freeze ties until Israel reimposes the ban.
