RAMALLAH, April 21 (JMCC) - Plans are underway to build an underground metro along the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, reported a Palestinian newspaper Wednesday.

Al-Quds newspaper cited Fateh officials, who said that the US-based company Marshall Engineering has designed blueprints for an underground train that will connect to the light rail system nearing completion in the city.

Tunnels dug for the train will extend from Mamilla cemetery, the controversial site of an under-construction museum of tolerance, to nearby Jaffa Gate in the walled city. The tunnel will then move east near the western wall of the al-Aqsa mosque complex inside the Old City, running under the Armenian cemetery.

Palestinians charge Israel with trying to alter the status quo in Jerusalem through development projects such as the light rail, which has been the target of groups calling for boycott of the companies working on the project.

Israel occupied Jerusalem's Old City in the 1967 war when it also took control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, areas Palestinians claim in negotiations as the site of a future Palestinian state.

The walled Old City is the site of important holy sites for all three monotheistic religions, and any excavations in the area are considered politically sensitive.