US envoy meets Palestinian leader in peace bid

US special envoy George Mitchell met Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas on Friday amid warnings that peace talks will remain stagnant unless Israel's new government commits to a two-state solution.

"Until the Benjamin Netanyahu government unequivocally affirms its support for the two-state solution, implements Israel?s roadmap obligations and abides by previous agreements, Palestinians have no partner for peace," top negotiator Saeb Erakat said after the meeting in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Mitchell emerged from the talks reiterating "the two-state solution is the only solution" and that "a comprehensive peace in the region is in the US national interest."

The largely right-wing cabinet of Israel's hawkish prime minister has distanced itself from past governments' support for the US-backed concept of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and has called previous agreements into question.

Mitchell and Abbas both "emphasised the shared commitment of the President Barack Obama administration and the Palestinian leadership to the two-state solution," Erakat said in a statement.

In the Gaza Strip, the territory's ruling Islamist Hamas movement in a statement called for action from Washington.

"We expect deeds, not fine words... The United States must adopt a clear stance against Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian lands."

Friday's Abbas-Mitchell talks came after meetings in Jerusalem on Thursday that highlighted the rift between the United States and Israel over the Middle East peace process.

While Mitchell stressed the US commitment to a two-state solution, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel's government needed time to come up with a new approach as the peace process had "reached a dead end."

Prime Minister Netanyahu said Israel expected the Palestinians "to recognise the state of Israel as the state of the Jewish people."

Palestinians angrily rejected that demand, which Erakat stressed does not figure in any peace treaty and does not conform with international law.

"Netanyahu?s new 'condition' serves no other purpose than to stall progress towards negotiations, and to save his government from having to deal with the real issues," he said.

Erakat named the issues as "Israel?s refusal to end its occupation, to freeze all settlement activity, to lift restrictions on Palestinian movement, and to unequivocally support the two-state solution."

For Palestinians, recognising Israel as a Jewish state would amount to abandoning the right to return of refugees, a key issue in the peace talks.

The contrasting positions highlighted the risk that Israel could be on a collision course with its most important ally, as Washington insists on the principle of a Palestinian state and Netanyahu refuses to endorse the plan.

But Israeli media stressed that Mitchell willingly gave Netanyahu's government six to eight more weeks to formulate its policy, in inviting the prime minister to meet with Obama in May.

"It is possible that a crisis with the American administration is on its way, and the route is leading to a collision, but for now the situation is under control," the Maariv daily said.

Mitchell who arrived in Israel on Wednesday, was due to fly on to Cairo. The former US senator played a key role in reaching the 1998 Good Friday accords that ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland.





A man works on the rotor head of a windmill at the fair grounds in Hanover, Germany, where preparations are under way for the Hannover Messe fair for industrial technology. AFP/DDP/Nigel Treblin