US Mideast envoy George Mitchell will return to Ramallah Friday for a second round of talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, after an additional round Thursday, dpa quoted chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat as saying. Mitchell is also expected to hold a second round of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem in an effort to salvage the month-old direct peace talks between the two sides. The negotiations, which started in Washington earlier this month, faced a serious setback over the weekend when Netanyahu refused to extend a 10-month old moratorium on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank. Settlements are a major source of division between the sides, with some Israelis claiming a religious right to settle the Palestinian territories, a move Palestinians see as a land grab. The Palestinians said they cannot continue negotiations if the freeze is not extended, but said they would give their final answer after a meeting of an Arab League committee set for October 6. Mitchell held "serious and in-depth" talks with Abbas and his negotiating team in Ramallah on Thursday, said Erekat, in an effort to break the deadlock in the negotiations. The US envoy, who held two hours of talks with Abbas, had also met Netanyahu the day before and Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday. Mitchell's shuttle between Al-Quds and Ramallah indicates a possible breakthrough in the deadlock as he searches for common ground between Israel and the Palestinians. "We are determined to continue, and we are continuing our efforts to find common ground between the parties to enable the direct negotiations to continue in a manner that we hope will lead to an agreement," Mitchell said in a statement to reporters after the meeting. The Palestinians had suggested a three-month extension of the moratorium to give time for the negotiations to make headway. The US and European Union backed the Palestinian proposal, which Netanyahu rejected, claiming his government would collapse if he extended the freeze. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who arrived in the region on Thursday to back the US efforts, is also expected to meet separately with Abbas and Netanyahu in the next two days. She had already called on Netanyahu to extend the freeze to prevent collapse of the negotiations. "President Obama's vision of comprehensive peace in the Middle East remains our primary goal in the regions," said Mitchell. "That means Israel and Palestinians reaching agreement on the two-state solution with security and prosperity for both people." However, Mitchell said the road ahead will not be easy. "We recognized and said at the outset that there would be difficulties, there would be ups and downs and there will be many obstacles to the peace process," he said. Mitchell failed to mention Israel's settlement policy as the main obstacle to the success of the peace process, preferring to mention only "some who would like to see the process fail and take action including the use of violence to prevent it from succeeding."
