TEL AVIV …quot; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday Israel hoped to begin indirect negotiations with the Palestinians next week during a visit by Washington's Middle East envoy. Palestinian officials said they wanted the US-mediated talks to focus initially on defining the borders of a state they hope to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "Our ultimate objective is to try to achieve a peace settlement with our Palestinian neighbors by means of direct talks," Netanyahu told reporters. "But we always said we don't necessarily insist on the format." With the blessing of the Arab League, the Palestinians have agreed to four months of indirect negotiations sponsored by Washington, which has been trying to break a deadlock and revive the two-decade-old peace process. Citing "signs of progress" in efforts to resume talks suspended since late 2008, Netanyahu said: "I welcome the fact this ripening has begun, which I hope will lead to the start of talks with the visit of Senator (George) Mitchell to Israel next week". But many observers doubt that these so-called proximity talks, in which Mitchell, President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy, would shuttle between the two sides, will succeed where years of negotiations have failed. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has balked at direct talks with Israel until it freezes Jewish settlement construction completely, calling Netanyahu's announcement in November of a limited moratorium insufficient. In the West Bank city of Ramallah, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that charting the borders of a future Palestinian state, within the four-month negotiating window set by the Arab League, was of paramount importance.
