Abbas dismayed over U.S. failure

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- The Palestinian Authority was not surprised by the U.S. failure to reignite the peace process, President Mahmoud Abbas said.

In an interview with Ahram Online, Abbas said he was dismayed about Washington's failure to convince Israel to impose an additional three month freeze on West Bank settlement construction but "had seen this coming."

"The Americans have not been making progress in their talks with the Israeli government over the settlement freeze and even the generous security and economic guarantees that the U.S. was willing to offer to Israel did not work," he said.

A Palestinian source told the Web site the U.S administration is currently examining an Egyptian proposal for talks to resume with small Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams in Washington.

"The Egyptians have said that if we get the settlements issue on the side and agree on the borders we could work out something. We agreed. We even agreed in principal to a provisional borders agreement but what Israel is offering in return are very open-ended talks that we cannot settle on -- too difficult," the source said.

Abbas arrived in Cairo Wednesday to discuss the situation with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Arab League chief Amr Moussa and other officials.

Abbas also requested an emergency meeting of Arab League foreign ministers Saturday in Cairo to discuss his next moves, the Web site said.

An Egyptian diplomat said the Palestinian president's next move is likely to ask for some sort of intervention from the U.N. Security Council.

"We still have to carefully think through our next move. We don't want to get into a confrontation with the U.S. administration," the diplomat said.