Israeli officials have reacted sternly to Google's decision last week to change the label on its home page in the occupied territories from "Palestinian territories" to "Palestine".

The deputy Israeli foreign minister, Zeev Elkin, said the move to recognize Palestine would backfire.

"I think that the Google decision from the last few days is very, very problematic," Elkin told Israel's Army Radio, according to Reuters. "When a company like Google comes along and supports this line, it actually pushes peace further away, pushes away negotiations, and creates among the Palestinian leadership the illusion that in this manner they can achieve the result.

"Without direct negotiation with us, nothing will happen."

The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, through a spokesman, welcomed Google's move, calling it a "victory for Palestine and a step toward its liberation".

Google "put Palestine on the Internet map, making it a geographical reality," an Abbas advisor, Sabri Saidam, told the official news agency WAFA.

Elkin's comments echoed Israel's reaction to the UN decision last November to elevate Palestine to the status of nonmember observer state. Israel's UN ambassador, Ron Prosor, said at the time that the move "doesn't pursue peace. It pushes it backwards."

Google stood by a statement it issued last week about the name switch. A spokesman for the company said: "We consult a number of sources and authorities when naming countries," and added that such sources included the UN.