Israel on Saturday blamed the Palestinian Authority for the failure of US envoy George Mitchell to reach a deal for the resumption of stalled peace talks, AFP reported.
"The Palestinian Authority is the one that is preventing the resumption of the peace process by making conditions that it has not made in the past," foreign ministry spokesman Yossi Levi said.
Mitchell wrapped up a mission to the Middle East on Friday after failing to secure an Israeli freeze on settlement expansion to pave the way for the resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks stalled since December.
He was hoping to secure the deal and arrange for a meeting at next week's UN General Assembly between Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama.
Palestinians have been demanding a halt to Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, including annexed Arab east Jerusalem, as a condition for resuming talks with Israel.
"Since the new government was formed five months ago, Israel has always said it was ready to resume, without preconditions, the peace process and meetings with Palestinian Authority representatives," Levi said in a statement.
Earlier on Saturday, Abbas had blamed Israel for Mitchell's failure to make any breakthrough, during separate talks in Egypt with President Hosni Mubarak and in Jordan with King Abdullah II.
"The road is now blocked," Abbas told reporters in Cairo, adding that the onus was now on Israel.
"There is no more work (for Mitchell) with the Western or Palestinian sides because we are complying with all our duties. The focus has to be on the Israeli side," he said.
Abbas and King Abdullah II later urged the international community to intervene and put pressure on Israel, saying in a statement released by the palace that settlements are "the key obstacle to achieving progress."
"The international community must bear its responsibilities and prevent Israel from undermining the efforts that are under way to push for serious and effective negotiations," the statement said.
During the meeting in Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba, Abbas and the Jordanian king also insisted that the "United States must have a leading role" in trying to revive the peace process.
Mitchell had been aiming to secure an Israeli moratorium on settlement construction that would be acceptable to the Palestinians and enable the resumption of peace talks.
Over the past weeks, Netanyahu has rebuffed repeated US calls to freeze settlement construction.
Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been frozen since December when Israel launched a devastating offensive against the Gaza Strip.
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