US envoy leaves Mideast with no sign of peace

A United States presidential envoy ended a Middle East shuttle mission on Sunday with no sign of any imminent resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks despite President Barack Obama's pledge to broker a peace deal.

George Mitchell met Israel's prime minister again on Sunday after dashing to Egypt as part of an uphill task to bring Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table.

The former U.S. senator met for an hour in Jerusalem with Benjamin Netanyahu, officials said, after separate meetings on Friday with the hawkish premier and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

Netanyahu's office said at the end of the meeting, which was also joined by Defence Minister Ehud Barak, that two senior aides to the premier would travel this week to Washington for more talks.

Mitchell, who did not speak after the meeting, had earlier told reporters in Cairo that "everyone who truly believes in peace has to take responsibility to take actions to achieve that goal."

Obama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, has said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would report to him by mid-October on Mitchell's attempts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks suspended since December.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has demanded that Israel abide by a 2003 peace "road map" and freeze settlement activity on occupied land where Palestinians hope to build a state. Abbas and Mitchell held talks in the occupied West Bank on Friday.

"It has been and remains an important objective of American policy and of President Obama and the secretary of state personally to achieve comprehensive peace in the Middle East," Mitchell told reporters in Cairo, before travelling to Jerusalem for his second meeting with Netanyahu.

"We understand that there are many difficulties, that there are many obstacles. But we are determined and committed to continue our efforts until that objective is reached," he said.

It has been and remains an important objective of American policy and of President Obama and the secretary of state personally to achieve comprehensive peace in the Middle East

US envoy Mitchell

From "freeze" to "restraint"

Resisting U.S. pressure, Netanyahu has pledged to continue some construction in settlements in the West Bank and for Jews in Arab East Jerusalem, areas captured in a 1967 war, saying he must meet the needs of growing settler families.

Obama, who had demanded a "freeze," asked Israel only for "restraint" on settlement when he met Netanyahu and Abbas in New York last month for talks that did not amount to a formal resumption of peace negotiations.

Israel and the Palestinians also differ over where to pick up negotiations conducted over the course of a year between Abbas and Israel's previous prime minister, Ehud Olmert, after a peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November 2007.

Netanyahu has said he is not bound by any territorial proposals his centrist predecessor made in those talks.

Netanyahu's right-leaning coalition government includes some nationalists for whom the very idea of Palestinian independence in the West Bank, territory which Israel captured from Jordan in a 1967 war, is anathema.

Abbas has credibility problems, as his armed Islamist Hamas rivals control the Gaza Strip and rule out any permanent peace accord with the Jewish state.

Since his appointment in January, Mitchell, 76, has visited Israel and the West Bank nine times. The missions have been stymied by Netanyahu's refusal to halt construction in settlements and by Arab states' reluctance to make peace overtures.

We understand that there are many difficulties, that there are many obstacles. But we are determined and committed to continue our efforts until that objective is reached

Mitchell