Senior Israeli and Palestinian officials are heading to Washington for talks, apparently aimed at salvaging the Middle East peace process, officials said on Wednesday.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat is to meet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington within "the next 48 hours," Yasser Abed Rabbo, spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, told AFP.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak was also travelling to Washington for "meetings with senior US defence and administration officials," his office said.
The meetings come a day after Washington admitted that its efforts to coax Israel into imposing new curbs on Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank had failed, leaving direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks suspended.
And US Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell is to come to the region next week, Abed Rabbo said.
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