A meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell has started in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Xinhua reported.
On Monday night, Mitchell met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in renewed effort to revive peace talks between the two sides.
Mitchell's visit is the first since the negotiations collapsed in September, owing to a dispute over the resumption of Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.
Last week, Washington announced it had given up work to persuade Israel to freeze the settlement building again. The Obama administration said it has other ideas to present to the two sides.
Earlier, Palestinian officials said that Abbas will tell Mitchell that the Palestinians will not resume the negotiations until Israel stops all forms of settlement.
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