Obama envoy hints at peace talks within weeks

United States seeks a "prompt resumption and early conclusion" of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Washington's special Mideast envoy said after talks Wednesday with Palestinian leaders.

Former Senator George Mitchell did not give any timetable in his prepared statement to reporters after meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah. A day earlier, however, Mitchell said preparations to revive negotiations could be could conclude within weeks.

"We hope to conclude the discussions in which we are now engaged very soon. To me it's a matter of weeks, not many months," he said.

The U.S. is engaged in an unusually public spat with Israel over its retreat from commitments to negotiate Palestinian statehood and its insistence on expanding settlements on land the Palestinians claim for that state.

"The only viable resolution to this conflict is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states," Mitchell said on Wednesday. "As President Obama said last week, America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity and a state of their own."

Americans, Europeans, Arabs and others who seek to promote peace "all share an obligation to create the conditions for the prompt resumption and early conclusion of negotiations," he said.

In a landmark speech to the Muslim world in Cairo last week, Obama promised to work aggressively to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Following up on the speech, Mitchell has pressed on with Obama's demands both for a settlement freeze and an endorsement of the concept of a Palestinian state.

Abbas gave Mitchell an itemized list of Israeli settlement expansion and Palestinian homes that Israel has recently demolished in east Jerusalem, the sector of the city the Palestinians claim for a future capital, senior Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said.

In his meeting Tuesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mitchell sought to allay Israeli fears over the growing rift, assuring Israel that the U.S. commitment to Israeli security was "unshakable."

It remains unclear whether Netanyahu will soften any of his positions in a policy speech he is scheduled to deliver on Sunday. Erekat declined to disclose whether Mitchell brought any indication to Abbas that Netanyahu had modified his stance.

The U.S. knows that when Israel "says it doesn't accept the two-state solution and doesn't want to freeze settlement expansion, that means it says 'no' to resuming negotiations," Erekat said.

Later Wednesday, Mitchell traveled to Cairo, where he met Egypt's foreign minister and powerful intelligence chief, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki.

Mitchell's latest swing through the region is also set to include stops in Lebanon and Syria.

The chief Palestinian negotiator said Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must resume peace talks from the point where they ended under Israel's previous, more moderate government.

Ahmed Qureia told reporters at his office just east of Jerulaem that "talks cannot start from scratch", but Netanyahu wants to restart the process at the beginning.

Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert, directed a year of wide-ranging negotiations with the Palestinians that touched on a series of sensitive issues. No agreements were made public, and Israeli and Palestinian officials disagree on the scope of the understandings.

Netanyahu says Israel is ready to resume negotiations but refuses to be bound to Olmert's reported concessions. Palestinians say they turned down his offer of a state in Gaza, more than 90 percent of the West Bank and parts of Jerusalem.

In a major policy speech Sunday, Netanyahu confirmed that such an offer was rejected.

In that speech, Netanyahu for the first time endorsed the idea of a Palestinian state. However, he listed a series of conditions rejected by the Palestinians, including a refusal to share control over the holy city of Jerusalem, demilitarization and recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.

The Israel-Palestinian talks followed the 2007 peace summit between Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Annapolis, Maryland. Their basis was the internationally backed 2003 road map peace plan, which called for a three-stage process for negotiations toward a Palestinian state.

The plan quickly bogged down in the first stage, which required the Palestinians to beef up security and halt militant attacks, and which demanded that Israel freeze settlement construction in the West Bank.

Israel still insists it needs to continue construction inside existing settlements to accommodate the needs to the settlers, putting it at odds with the Obama administration, which is demanding a complete freeze.

Netanyahu is expected to discuss settlements next week in Europe with the White House Mideast envoy, George Mitchell.

Nearly 300,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements, along with 180,000 Israelis in Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem. The Palestinian seek both areas, captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, as parts of a future state.