From his sixth-floor suite, Jerusalem's mayor Nir Barkat surely has one of the best views from an office anywhere on this planet.

The balcony that runs 360 degrees around the top floor of the municipality offers vistas of the ever-developing western half of the city and its Jewish majority, but of course far more stunning is the view of the Arab-dominated east, and at its heart the magnificent Dome of the Rock -- the Muslim shrine that has center-stage on what Jews refer to as the Temple Mount.

But when this incredibly-successful high-tech entrepreneur-turned politician overlooks the city he loves, he does not just see this religious and tourist Mecca but a city with intricate and overlapping problems that have built up over decades.

When the 49-year-old man won the mayoral election in November 2008, he promised to look carefully at what the people of the city wanted. Since then he has instructed his staff to carry out detailed surveys of the demands of the city's Arabs, religious and secular Jews, the poor, the business community and more.

While outsiders focus almost exclusively on the apparent divisions between the two halves of the city -- Jewish and Arab. Barkat prefers to view what he sees as an indivisible city from a financial perspective. To him, alleviating poverty and improving living standards will go a long way towards ending the cities ethnic, religious and cultural divides.

For years Jerusalem has suffered a secular brain drain. Its former leading lights have quit the city heading for more middle class locations, both in the lush hills surrounding it and along the Mediterranean coastline.

The dominant communities in the city now are the ultra-orthodox Jews and the city's Arab residents.

The average Israeli earns some 24,000 U.S. dollars every year. In western Jerusalem that figure stands at 16,000 U.S. dollars. In the Arab parts of the city, people earn 4,000 U.S. dollars.

"There are gaps we must close," Barkat told Xinhua in his first interview with an Asian media organization since taking office in December 2008.

"There are many, many challenges and the biggest of them all is to dramatically increase the work and tourism so that we can then serve all of the residents of the city," he said.

However, on the eastern side of his city, residents say issues beyond poverty must also be tackled. One in particular leaves many angry and some homeless.

For years the municipality has issued demolition orders for houses it says were built illegally. Rights groups, be they Arab, Israeli or international, try to block the demolitions, often in vain.

While Barkat is not willing to place too much blame on his predecessors, he promises his administration is looking at the matter in a very different light. He is hoping to build in eastern Jerusalem on a large scale. He wants to introduce as much new housing as possible, to allow Arabs to move into new, attractive homes and to remove the topic of illegal buildings from the city's agenda.

In the upcoming months Barkat will unveil a detailed plan for the city that he says will include job creation, particularly in the tourism sector, with the hope that the city will eventually attract some 10 million visitors a year -- around five times more than the current figure. That requires the construction of 23,000 additional hotel rooms. Their location will be a part of Barkat's anticipated announcement. Municipality sources suggest many of them could be bound for eastern Jerusalem.

But all this positive talk from city hall ignores one key basic. The Palestinian Authority and most of the international community sees eastern Jerusalem as occupied territory and perceives it as the likely home for a future Palestinian capital.

That idea is something Barkat is not prepared to countenance. Even though, as Xinhua put it to him, he is "wasting" large amounts of money in eastern Jerusalem, when soon he will likely not be in control of the city.

"Jerusalem is going to stay united. Jerusalem has to be holistic, has to work better in the different parts and there's not one good example in the world of a split city that works," he replied.

Six months into his term in office -- and yes, he is already talking of a second five-year term -- Barkat remains popular with most Jerusalemites, even many Arabs say they think he is trying his best to alleviate poverty in the city.

However, as this week's riots between police officers and thousands of Jews over the opening of a parking lot on the Sabbath proved, Jerusalem still needs lots of confidence-building measures, and the demands on this personable, secular mayor are enormous.

Barkat insists he is not naive but argues much can be achieved with extremely careful planning.

"My goal is to make Jerusalem more attractive for young people, for investors, for entrepreneurs. They are the catalyst, if you like the engine of a large train and we have to make sure there are more engines in the city that can develop the economy, that can develop the quality of life here to enable more people to stay," he said.

Source: Xinhua