Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was in Cairo Thursday for a meeting with the Arab League committee dealing with the group's regional peace initiative, as talks with Israel remained in a stalemate, DPA reported.
Officials said Abbas asked for the meeting to update the Arab League about the stalled peace process, which has so far failed to bring the two sides into direct talks.
Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday his country had no plans to extend a building freeze in West Bank settlements after September, rejecting one of the Abbas' primary conditions for moving to direct negotiations.
In November last year Israel declared a partial and limited 10-month construction freeze, which did not include East Jerusalem. Palestinians said this was insufficient, but mediation by US envoy George Mitchell resulted in indirect talks getting underway earlier this year.
The Arab League's committee - a body headed by the Qataris and that includes key diplomats from major Arab states - has supported the US-backed proximity talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis.
However, the committee said it would bring the peace process back to the United Nations Security Council if the parties were unable to move to direct negotiations by September 1.
In 2002, the Arab League backed an initiative - never formally accepted by Israel - they said was designed to move the region towards a peace agreement.
The deal called for Israel withdrawing from all territories occupied in the 1967 war, the establishment of a Palestinian state and a "just solution" to the refugee crisis sparked by the 1948 war.
In return for settling these affairs, the Arab world promised to normalize relations with the Jewish State, as currently only Egypt and Jordan have full diplomatic ties to Israel. Mauritania cut ties in 2009, following the war in the Gaza Strip, after a decade of relations.
The Palestinian leader was not expected to meet Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak while in Cairo.