US-LED efforts to broker a resumption of peace talks have ended without a breakthrough, a top Palestinian official says, although Washington's top diplomat hailed "real progress".
US Secretary of State John Kerry has spent the past four days locked in intensive shuttle diplomacy between the Israeli and Palestinian leadership in a high-profile bid to draw the two sides back into direct negotiations after a gap of nearly three years.
But after 13 hours of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and around six hours with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, Kerry's marathon efforts ended on Sunday with little sign of progress.
Speaking in Ramallah after Kerry held his third and final meeting with Abbas, chief negotiator Saeb Erakat said there had been "no breakthrough."
"It was a positive and profound meeting with president Abbas but there has been no breakthrough so far and there is still a gap between the Palestinian and Israeli positions," he told a news conference.
But Kerry himself insisted he had had "very positive" discussions with both sides since beginning his shuttle diplomacy in Jerusalem on Thursday night.
"We agreed we have made real progress but we have a few things we need to work on," he said after a final meeting with Abbas before heading off to Asia.
"We both feel good about the direction," he said.
Netanyahu insisted that Israel was not blocking a return to negotiations.
"We are not putting up any impediments on the resumption of the permanent talks for a peace agreement between us and the Palestinians," he said.
"There are things that we will strongly insist on in the talks themselves, especially security ... there will be no agreement that will endanger Israelis' security."
Abbas is pushing Israel to free the longest-serving Palestinian prisoners, to remove roadblocks in the West Bank and to publicly agree to make the lines that existed before the 1967 Middle East war the baseline for negotiations.
Netanyahu is reportedly willing to consider just the first two conditions - but only after talks are under way - and has flatly refused to countenance any return to the 1967 lines.
Palestinian officials appeared pessimistic about Kerry's chances of achieving a breakthrough.
"Netanyahu and his government are not serious about establishing a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders, they speak of a state without clear borders, and we need clarity according to international resolutions," said Azzam al-Ahmed, a senior official of Abbas's ruling Fatah party.
