[JURIST] After a Monday meeting with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas [BBC profile], UN Secretary General Kofi Annan announced that the UN will establish a register of property damage caused by the construction of Israel's two-year-old West Bank separation barrier [Israel MOD website]. Annan said the UN position on the barrier was clear: an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice [materials] held the barrier to be illegal, and the General Assembly had passed an anti-barrier resolution [text]. Israel claims that the barrier, which is now about one-third complete, is to keep out Palestinian attackers. Palestinians, meanwhile, insist that the real purpose is to seize West Bank land and draw a border without negotiating a peace deal. During Annan's announcement, Palestinian police restrained hundreds of protesters outside the walled government compound in Ramallah where he spoke to the press. AP has more.