Arab League gives Mideast talks 4-month window

Foreign ministers from Arab League nations attend a meeting at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo March 3, 2010.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Arab League ministers on Wednesday backed a U.S. call for indirect Palestinian-Israeli talks, reviving prospects for mediation by Washington which plans to send a senior official to the Middle East soon.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had said he would adhere to the decision of the Arab League committee that met in Cairo. Later a U.S. official said George Mitchell, the U.S. special peace envoy, would visit the region shortly.

"We expect Senator Mitchell to return to the region in the very near future ... (to) continue our work to get negotiations relaunched as soon as possible," said the official, who spoke on condition that he not be identified.

Sources close to the talks said Mitchell could begin meeting officials in the region within days.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has called for direct talks but has not ruled out indirect negotiations as a first step, said after the Arab League move that conditions were improving for the start of so-called "proximity talks."

"We will see. We are not the obstacle. I've said it takes two to tango in the Middle East. But it might take three, and initially, we might need a shuttle mission," he told Israel's parliament, referring to a mediator moving between the sides.

"The world understands -- and how -- that this government wants negotiations and has taken steps, not simple ones, to promote talks," Netanyahu said, an apparent reference to a partial settlement freeze that Abbas has termed inadequate.

Syria, a staunch opponent of Israel, said the Arab League decision was not agreed by consensus and it appeared aimed at giving "political cover" for a Palestinian decision already taken.

"Despite not being convinced about the sincerity of the Israeli side to achieve a just peace, the committee sees ... indirect negotiations as a last initiative," Arab League chief Amr Moussa told a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo.

"These negotiations should not be open-ended and must have a time limit not exceeding four months. The indirect talks should not be automatically translated into direct talks," he said.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat had also said Arabs were not "convinced by Israeli intentions" but backed the U.S. idea.

'NO CONSENSUS'

Erekat said if discussions failed the committee would meet in July to assess developments. Moussa said any failure would prompt Arabs to seek an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting.

Washington has been trying for a year to get Palestinians and Israelis to talk. Abbas broke off talks with Israel to protest its offensive in Gaza launched in December 2008.

He has resisted U.S. and Israeli calls for a resumption of direct negotiations, saying Israel must first halt all Jewish settlement building on occupied lands where the Palestinians aim to establish a state.

Palestinian officials have cited recent Israeli measures, including a plan to include West Bank religious sites in a Jewish heritage project and plans for more East Jerusalem homes, as evidence that Netanyahu is not sincere about peacemaking.

Announcement of the heritage plan last week has increased tension in the West Bank. It touched off violent protests and triggered calls for a new Palestinian uprising from Hamas Islamists who control the Gaza Strip and are hostile to Israel.

Netanyahu has said the plan to renovate holy sites, including two in the West Bank revered by Muslims and Jews, would not impinge on Muslim freedom of worship.

Overnight, Israeli forces raided a Palestinian village near Jenin in the northern West Bank, wounding two members of the Islamic Jihad group, a Palestinian security officer said.

Islamic Jihad said the two men, leaders wanted by Israel for eight years, had fought gun battles through the night with the Israeli forces. They had been wounded and detained, it said.

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington, Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, and Dina Zayed and Marwa Awad in Cairo; Writing by Tom Perry and Edmund Blair; Editing by Dominic Evans)