Palestinians confused by on-off talks

Talks are deadlocked over the future of Jerusalem

Palestinian negotiators are demanding clarification of Israel's decision to halt peace talks before announcing shortly afterwards that meetings would resume.

One Palestinian negotiator, Mohammed Dahlan, told Voice of Palestine radio that talks would not proceed unless the Israelis explained their actions.

If they want to play games, the Palestinians will not continue

Palestinian negotiator Hassan Asfour

His warning followed Israel's cancellation of a meeting on Tuesday following comments from Prime Minister Ehud Barak's office accusing the Palestinians of not being willing to move forward.

Mr Barak's aides then changed their stance, and rescheduled a meeting between Israeli negotiator Gilad Sher and his Palestinian counterpart Saeb Erekat for Wednesday.

'Misunderstanding'

Israel's Justice Minister Yossi Beilin described the conflicting announcements as a "misunderstanding".

Ehud Barak faces huge domestic political pressures

But Palestinian officials responded by accusing Mr Barak of attempting to use the talks to deflect criticism of his government from within Israel.

"If they want to come to negotiate, we will come," said negotiator Hassan Asfour.

But he warned: "If they want to play games, the Palestinians will not continue."

The two sides have been unable to resolve their differences since the collapse in July of the Camp David peace summit hosted by President Bill Clinton.

Announcing the break in talks earlier on Tuesday, Danny Yatom, a senior adviser to Mr Barak, said the Israeli side had "decided on a brief time-out to summarise positions so far and to make our own assessment".

"We are not angry with the Palestinians and they are not angry with us," he said, calling on them to present "more constructive and moderate positions".

'Informal contacts'

Mr Barak said that only informal contacts, not actual negotiations, had taken place since the collapse of his talks with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at Camp David.

Negotiations will take place when Chairman Arafat agrees to discuss the ideas that Clinton raised in Camp David

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak

"Negotiations will take place when Chairman Arafat agrees to discuss the ideas that Clinton raised in Camp David and since then," Mr Barak said.

He reiterated the need to resolve the differences over Jerusalem in any deal.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and considers all of the city its united and eternal capital.

The Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state. They have postponed a planned declaration of statehood until at least 15 November.