Special Reports: Palestine-Israel Conflicts >>
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on Monday denied its knowledge of any U.S. plan to hold an international peace conference to resume negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
"We don't have any information and we haven't been informed about any American plan to hold an international meeting for peace in the region," said Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian peace negotiator.
According to Israeli media reports, President Barack Obama was studying the chances of holding a conference to resume the Israeli-Palestinian peace process with supports from moderate Arab states like Egypt, Jordan and Morocco.
Erekat added that Israel has first to affirm its commitment to peace, such as endorsing the two-state solution and stopping all types of Jewish settlement activities in the West Bank.
In November 2007, Israel and the Palestinians resumed their peace talks following the U.S.-hosted Annapolis peace conference. The talks stopped when Israel launched a military offensive in the Gaza Strip near the end of 2008.
Netanyahu's victory in Israel's general elections in February and his rejection to halt settlement activities have contributed to the freeze of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
The debate over the resumption of peace talks comes as Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell arrived in Israel and the Palestinian territories to talk with leaders there about his administration's efforts to push the talks forward.