Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has told Arab powers he may seek US recognition for a Palestinian state taking in all of the West Bank should peace talks with Israel stay stalled.
The idea, raised during close-door Arab League deliberations in Libya yesterday, could step up pressure on Israel to extend a freeze on Jewish settlement building in the occupied territory, without which Mr Abbas has said peace negotiations cannot continue.
Arab foreign ministers endorsed that Palestinian position but, hoping to head off a collapse of the talks launched by US President Barack Obama just five weeks ago, said they would reconvene in a month to discuss "alternatives" mooted by Mr Abbas.
Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said these included "ask(ing) the United States to recognise the state of Palestine on the 1967 borders" and studying the possibility of a similar UN recognition through a Security Council resolution.
"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," Mr Erekat said.
A diplomatic source at the Arab League meeting said another of the alternatives put forward by Mr Abbas was for him to threaten to step down unless settlement building is halted.
President Abbas had been expected to address Arab heads of state gathered in the Libyan town of Sirte today, but aides said the Palestinian president would not deliver a speech.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose governing coalition includes pro-settler parties, has resisted calls to renew a moratorium on settlement building, which expired last month. He says the dispute would become irrelevant should peacemaking ripen to the point of delineating borders.
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 and do not accept the Jewish state's claim on East Jerusalem.
Friday's Arab League statement spelled yet another reprieve for a Middle East peace process that Mr Obama has made a centrepiece of US foreign policy. Washington welcomed it.
"We will continue to work with the parties, and all our international partners, to advance negotiations towards a two-state solution and encourage the parties to take constructive actions towards that end," said Philip J. Crowley, assistant US secretary of state for public affairs.
Israeli officials declined to comment on the Arab League meeting or Mr Erekat's account of the proposal on Palestinian statehood. Israel Radio quoted an unnamed Netanyahu aide as crediting the Americans with keeping the peace talks in play.
President Abbas has said he wants to go on negotiating but cannot unless the building of new homes for Jewish settlers is frozen for "three to four months more to give peace a chance."
The Palestinians say settlements would deny them a viable state, which they envisage having East Jerusalem as capital.
The Obama administration is seeking a 60-day extension of the freeze, diplomats said, offering Israel various incentives.
Reuters