The Palestinians on Monday gave Washington's top diplomat just 24 hours to resolve a major crisis with Israel over prisoners as he flew in to salvage the crisis-hit peace talks.
US Secretary of State John Kerry (R) is welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on March 31, 2014
After landing at Tel Aviv airport at 1600 GMT, US Secretary of State John Kerry headed straight to Jerusalem for a two-hour meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
But a late-night meeting in Ramallah with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was cancelled, sources on both sides said, without giving a reason.
Instead, Kerry was holding talks at his Jerusalem hotel with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat, US officials said.
Kerry flew in from Paris for what was expected to be little more than a 15-hour visit to push both sides to resolve a lingering dispute over Palestinian prisoners which is threatening to derail the negotiations ahead of an April 29 deadline.
US peace efforts are teetering on the brink of collapse after Israel refused to free a group of 26 veteran Palestinian prisoners under an agreement which brought the sides back to the negotiating table in July 2013.
Furious Palestinian officials have warned that unless Israel changes its stance on the prisoner releases, it could signal the end of the talks.
Abbas spent most of the evening locked in a key leadership meeting to discuss the standoff, with the leadership giving Kerry 24 hours to come up with a solution to the prisoners crisis.
"If we don't get an answer from John Kerry on the prisoners tonight, we'll begin to ask for membership in all UN agencies tomorrow (Tuesday)," independent Palestinian MP Mustafa Barghuti told AFP.
In exchange for Israel's agreement to release a total of 104 prisoners in four stages, the Palestinians agreed to freeze all efforts to secure international recognition for the duration of the peace talks.
But after Israel refused to free the fourth and final batch of prisoners on March 29, the Palestinians have said that all bets are off, with officials warning Israel would "bear the consequences" of its decisions.
- Pollard fate as key? -
At the Ramallah meeting, the leadership agreed there would be no extension of talks without a "comprehensive" freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem, two separate sources told AFP.
The peace talks, which have so far yielded no obvious results, are due to draw to a close on April 29 and US efforts are currently focused on getting the parties to agree an extension to the end of the year.
The question of extending the talks has become intricately tied up with the fate of the 26 prisoners.
Just a day ahead of the expected releases, Israel said it would not free detainees convicted of deadly attacks unless the Palestinians would commit to extending the negotiations.
But the Palestinians say they will not even discuss any extension of the negotiating period unless Israel frees the prisoners.
The impasse has triggered "intense" US efforts to resolve the dispute, with Kerry speaking with both sides earlier on Monday.
The US decision to fly Kerry in came after a late-night meeting between the negotiating teams in Jerusalem at which Israel had made a fresh proposal for extending the negotiations which was rejected by the Ramallah leadership, a Palestinian official told AFP.
"Israel is practising a policy of blackmail and linking its agreement to releasing the fourth batch of prisoners with the Palestinians accepting to extend the negotiations," he said.
In exchange for Palestinian agreement to continue the talks, Israel had offered to free the fourth batch of detainees and to release another 420 others, most of them common law criminals.
And although the Israelis were offering a partial settlement freeze in the West Bank, it would not be extended to annexed east Jerusalem.
It was Kerry's first visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories since early January, although he has held face-to-face meetings with both Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in Europe and the United States.
Meanwhile, separate sources close to the talks said Israeli and US negotiators were discussing a possible deal to secure the release of US-born Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard as a way to unblock the talks impasse.
One proposal could see Pollard freed before the week-long Jewish holiday of Passover, which begins in mid-April, .
In exchange, Israel would release the final batch of prisoners as well as another group of detainees, and the sides would agree to extend the talks.