US Secretary of State John Kerry is dashing to the West Bank to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas as he battles to salvage his Middle East peace bid.
A Palestinian official announced the surprise move after Kerry met twice with Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat on Friday morning in his Amman hotel.
The whirlwind diplomacy came after the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah rejected Kerry's proposals for a framework to guide the relaunch of peace talks with the Israelis stalled for nearly three years.
Erakat had planned to tell Kerry that a return to talks could not happen based on his plan, a Palestinian official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"Erakat will inform Kerry that without a clear basis on the 1967 borders, a settlement freeze and a clear position on the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, the Palestinian side thinks there will be no talks," he said.
Their first meeting lasted barely 45 minutes, but Kerry and Erakat then went back into talks which lasted over an hour and half, State Department officials said.
Shortly after the second talks broke up, a Palestinian official told AFP that Kerry was now travelling by Jordanian helicopter to the West Bank to meet Abbas.
The setback to Kerry's peace push came from the governing Revolutionary Council of Abbas's own Fatah movement, which demanded changes to the US plan.
The broader Palestine Liberation Organisation, which also includes leftwing factions less sympathetic towards a compromise, said it was also drawing up a formal response to Kerry's proposals.
Talks have stuttered and started for decades in the elusive bid to reach a final peace deal between the Arab world and Israel.
But they collapsed completely in September 2010 when Israel refused to keep up a freeze on settlement building in Palestinian territories.
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