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RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian anger over Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird’s controversial meeting with an Israeli cabinet minister in East Jerusalem mounted Sunday with the Palestinian Authority making a formal protest to the Canadian envoy.

Baird met last Tuesday with Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who is also Israel’s chief negotiator with the Palestinians, in the disputed territory, which the Palestinians and the United Nations consider occupied land.

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The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said it summoned Katherine Verrier-Frechette on Sunday “to express its strong dissatisfaction” over the meeting.

The Palestinian official in charge of American affairs, Hosni Abdul Wahid, called Baird’s meeting “a deplorable step.”

Baird has defended his action, saying where he has coffee with someone is “irrelevant” to the larger discussion of Middle East peace and does not signal a shift in Canadian foreign policy.