Abbas may ask US to recognize Palestinian state

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has told Arab leaders he may seek U.S. recognition for a Palestinian state taking in all of the West Bank should peace talks with Israel stay stalled, an aide said on Saturday.

The idea, raised during Arab League deliberations in Libya on Friday, would place new pressure on Israel to extend a freeze on construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied territory, without which Abbas has said peace negotiations cannot continue.

Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said "alternatives" to the face-to-face talks launched five weeks ago had been discussed, among them "ask(ing) the United States to recognize the state of Palestine on the 1967 borders".

"(Another) is to study the possibility of going to the (U.N.) Security Council to get a resolution that calls upon member states to recognize the state of Palestine on the 1967 borders," he told Reuters by telephone from the Libyan town of Sirte.

Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and in the Gaza Strip -- lands Israel captured from Jordan and Egypt in the 1967 war. Israel quit Gaza in 2005 but insists on keeping all of Jerusalem -- its declared capital -- and swathes of West Bank settlements under any peace accord.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu imposed a partial 10-month freeze on settlement construction last November in what he called a goodwill gesture to get negotiations started.

But Netanyahu, whose coalition government includes pro-settler parties, has resisted international pressure to extend the moratorium past its scheduled expiry last month.

Past proposals for Palestinian statehood to be declared without Israeli consent have been received coolly by the United States and other world powers, who want a negotiated solution though they regard the settlements as illegitimate.

The Palestinians say settlements would deny them a viable state, which they envisage having East Jerusalem as its capital.

"I cannot specify all the alternatives that were presented by President Abbas (to the Arab League), but the president will keep working with the American administration to achieve a full cessation of settlement activities in order to restart talks," Erekat said.

I cannot specify all the alternatives that were presented by President Abbas, but the president will keep working with the American administration to achieve a full cessation of settlement activities in order to restart talks

Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat

A month to review

Meanwhile the United States pledged to keep working to rescue peace talks after Arab ministers gave it one month from Friday to secure a change of heart from Israel over the settlement issue.

The ministers, meeting in Sirte, Libya, made it clear that the direct talks with the Palestinians re would collapse if Israel did not halt settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.

The Arab League Follow-up Committee said it would meet "in a month to review the alternatives proposed by Abbas to determine the necessary steps to be taken on this."

The committee, which groups 13 foreign ministers, urged Washington to pursue efforts in the meantime to stop Israeli settlement activity.

It added that it "supports the position of the Palestinian president calling for a total cessation of settlement to allow the resumption of direct negotiations."

The Palestinian leader's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeina, said the statement "offers huge support for the position of president Abbas.

"The committee will convene again in a month to study the alternatives, which gives the U.S. administration a chance between now and then to try to find a solution to the settlements issue," he said.

Washington expressed appreciation for the ministers' statement of support for its efforts.

"We will continue to work with the parties, and all our international partners, to advance negotiations toward a two-state solution and encourage the parties to take constructive actions toward that end," State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said.

But the Islamist Hamas movement, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since ousting forces loyal to Abbas in 2007, expressed frustration that Arab ministers had not gone further in supporting the abandonment of talks.

"Giving more time to the Americans will just bring more pressure on Arab governments and the Palestinian side and lead to the actions of the Israelis being ignored," spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP.

Abbas came to Sirte to seek backing to withdraw from the peace negotiations after Israel adamantly refused to extend a freeze on settlement building that expired on September 26.

For the Palestinians, Jewish settlements are a major threat to the establishment of a viable future state in the West Bank, and they see the freezing of settlements as a crucial test of Israel's intentions.

But Netanyahu on Thursday said the Palestinians were responsible for the crisis in the talks.

"The question needs to be directed to the Palestinians: why are you abandoning the talks?" he told reporters.

"Don't turn your backs on peace; stay in the talks. This is what needs to be asked today, and not of the Israeli government."

Don't turn your backs on peace; stay in the talks. This is what needs to be asked today, and not of the Israeli government

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu