UNITED NATIONS, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Israel's move within days of a new peace drive to tender for bids to build new homes on land it seized near Jerusalem 40 years ago is "not helpful," U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday.

Israel published the tender, dated Dec. 2, for 300 homes and commercial units on a government Web site this week.

"This new tender for 300 new homes in eastern Jerusalem, so soon after the Annapolis Middle East peace conference, I think is not helpful," Ban said, noting that the United Nations had a consistent position on the illegality of such settlements.

An Israeli government spokesman has said the plan does not contravene Israel's commitment under a U.S.-sponsored "road map" for peace with the Palestinians.

Palestinian officials say it could damage the peace process relaunched under U.S. patronage at the peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland last week.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and has annexed it in a move not recognized internationally. The Palestinians want the Arab part of the city as the capital of their future state.

Under the road map, Israel has committed to stop settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, but distinguishes between that area and Jerusalem, whose municipal boundaries were expanded after the 1967 war and included a number of Arab neighborhoods and villages around the city.

The site of the new building lies between Arab East Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Bethlehem to the south.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed at Annapolis to launch full peace negotiations after a seven-year stalemate. (Reporting by Claudia Parsons, editing by Chris Wilson)

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