Palestinians say indirect talks with Israel have begun

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in his office in Jerusalem May 9, 2010.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinians declared on Sunday the start of indirect talks with Israel mediated by the United States, which said both sides had taken steps to help its peace efforts succeed.

"I can officially declare today that the proximity talks have begun," senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell in Ramallah.

Echoing a call by the United States for a future move to direct negotiations -- and reflecting low public expectations for progress -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said peace would be unobtainable without face-to-face contacts.

"If he (Netanyahu) announces a complete halt to settlement building, there will be direct talks," Erekat countered.

Netanyahu, who heads a coalition government dominated by pro-settler parties, has rejected a total freeze on construction of Jewish settlements in occupied territory.

Shortly after the announcement, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Philip Crowley said in a statement that both sides had taken steps to "help create an atmosphere that is conducive to successful talks."

He said Netanyahu would freeze for two years a plan for hundreds of new housing units in an East Jerusalem settlement and Abbas would work to stop incitement against Israel.

A Netanyahu aide, who declined to be named, denied that the Israeli leader had specifically agreed to freeze the plan.

But no new Israeli housing projects in East Jerusalem have been approved since March, raising speculation Netanyahu has imposed a de facto moratorium that could keep talks ticking while avoiding a showdown with his far-right coalition partners.

U.S. plans for indirect talks were stymied in March, when Israel angered Washington and the Palestinians by announcing during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden a project to build 1,600 new homes in the Ramat Shlomo settlement.

U.S. ASSURANCES

Netanyahu said the indirect talks with the Palestinians would begin "without preconditions," an apparent reference to U.S. and Palestinian demands to curb construction of homes for Jews in and near East Jerusalem.

Addressing his cabinet, Netanyahu said in public remarks: "The proximity talks must bring about direct talks soon. Peace cannot be brought about from a distance, or with a remote control."

The Palestinians say the United States has given assurances it will take action if either side does anything that derails the talks. They take that to mean a guarantee Israel will not announce new settlement work.

"We have an opportunity," Erekat said, listing the borders of a future Palestinian state and security as the issues on which Palestinians will focus in the negotiations.

The settlement standoff forced Mitchell to search for a new way to conduct talks between sides whose negotiations have mostly been face-to-face since the start of the Middle East peace process in the early 1990s.

Palestinian consent to the talks marked a breakthrough, albeit modest, for President Barack Obama's attempts to restart peace talks suspended for 18 months. The United States and Israel have been urging Abbas to agree to negotiations.

Crowley also said the Obama administration would hold accountable both sides should they engage in activities that undermine its peace efforts.

"As both parties know, if either takes significant actions during the proximity talks that we judge would seriously undermine trust, we will respond to hold them accountable and ensure that negotiations continue."

Mitchell, who returns to the Middle East next week, has made no public comments since the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) approved four months of indirect talks on Saturday.

The Palestinians aim to establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Israel captured those areas in a 1967 war and regards all of Jerusalem as its capital, a claim not recognized internationally.

The Netanyahu aide said the prime minister was considering a package of goodwill gestures to the Palestinians should the indirect talks go well. He declined to elaborate.

(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Dan Williams and Joseph Nasr in Jerusalem and Arshad Mohammed in Washington, Writing by Jeffrey Heller and Joseph Nasr; Editing by Mark Heinrich)