Timeline: Middle East peace negotiators meet

(Reuters) - The quartet of Middle East peace negotiators, meeting in Moscow on Friday, condemned for the second time Israeli plans for new settlements in East Jerusalem, but the United States suggested Israel was moving to address the issue.

Here are key dates on the long road to this point:

1897 - European Jews in Zionist movement declare goal of creating a Jewish state in Ottoman Turkish-ruled Palestine.

1917 - British forces take Palestine from collapsing Ottoman empire in World War One. British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour declares support for Jewish "national home" there.

1945 - Revelation of Nazi Holocaust and new Jewish migration to Palestine bolster Western support for creating Jewish state.

1948 - Britain quits and great powers recognize Israel as U.N. partition plan dissolves in war that leaves Jewish state on 78 percent of land and half of Palestine's Arabs as refugees.

1967 - In what it calls pre-emptive strikes on Arab states, Israeli forces seize rest of British-mandate Palestine, taking West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan and Gaza Strip from Egypt. Israel captures Golan Heights from Syria.

1988 - After a year of Intifada (uprising), exiled PLO leader Yasser Arafat, widely acknowledged as speaking for Palestinians, renounces "terrorism" and accepts Israel's right to exist.

1991 - As Cold War ends, Middle East conference in Madrid, backed by Washington and Moscow, paves way for peace accords.

1993 - Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin trade historic handshake at Bill Clinton's White House, sealing Oslo Accords outline for limited Palestinian self-rule in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

1994 - Rabin and King Hussein of Jordan sign peace treaty ending 46 years of war.

1996 - Following 1995 assassination of Rabin by an Israeli opposed to Oslo concessions and after wave of suicide bombings in Israel by Hamas, Arafat's Islamist rivals, right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu elected Israeli leader.

2000 - At Camp David, U.S. President Bill Clinton fails to bring Arafat and Israeli Labour Prime Minister Ehud Barak to agreement on final settlement. Months later, second Palestinian Intifada brings several years of bombings and wider violence.

2003 - "Road map" for peace -- drafted by the Middle East Quartet, the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia -- binds both sides to curbing violence and Israel to halting Jewish settlement on occupied land.

2005 - After Arafat's death in 2004, Mahmoud Abbas elected Palestinian president. Right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pulls settlers and troops out of the Gaza Strip.

2006 - Hamas wins Palestinian parliamentary election, forms government that is boycotted by Israel and Western powers.

2007 - Citing fears of U.S.-backed plan to oust Hamas from government, Islamists seize control in Gaza from Abbas's forces. Months later, Bush brings Abbas and Sharon's successor Ehud Olmert together at Annapolis to launch new bid for peace deal.

December 2008 - After a year of desultory talking, Abbas quits negotiations when Olmert launches offensive on Hamas-run Gaza.

January 2009 - New U.S. President Barack Obama names George Mitchell, once Northern Ireland mediator, as Middle East envoy.

March - After Israeli election, Netanyahu again prime minister at head of coalition of mostly right-wing parties.

June - After calls from Obama and his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, for an end to settlement growth and new peace talks, Netanyahu accepts Palestinian state should be created -- in time, and under conditions to protect Israel's security.

September - Obama brings Abbas and Netanyahu together for handshake at U.N., disappointing Palestinian hopes he would keep backing Abbas's demand for settlement freeze before new talks.

November - Clinton hails Netanyahu's partial, 10-month halt on building permits in West Bank settlements as "unprecedented." Abbas under mounting U.S. pressure to return to negotiations.

March 3, 2010 - Arab League endorses 4 months of "proximity talks," a formula that allows Abbas to resume some form of negotiation without his demands on settlements being met. Hamas condemns the move, reaffirming deep Palestinian divisions.

March 7/8 - Mitchell meets Netanyahu and Abbas and says he is pleased the two sides now agreed to hold indirect talks via U.S. mediation.

March 9 - Hours after visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke of Obama's commitment to Israel's security in the face of threats from Tehran, Israel's Interior Ministry gives approval for 1,600 new homes for Jewish settlers in a part of the West Bank annexed to Jerusalem. Biden condemns the Israeli plans.

March 12 - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tells Netanyahu he must work to repair relations with Washington after the debacle over Jewish settlements.

March 19 - Israel tries to defuse row with the U.S. saying it will offer the Palestinians "confidence-building" steps.

-- The Middle East quartet meeting in Moscow, calls on all parties to promote indirect peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians as part of moves toward establishing a Palestinian state in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank in 24 months.