Secretary of State John Kerry has rejected Israeli and Palestinian claims the US is biased as he made a whistlestop tour of allies Jordan and Saudi Arabia to woo support for his peace plan.
Kerry promised that any plan he came up with would be "fair and balanced" and likened his efforts to broker a compromise between the conflicting demands of the two sides to a puzzle.
"In the end all of these core issues fit together like a mosaic, like a puzzle and you can't separate out one piece or another," Kerry said in Jerusalem before flying to Amman, and later Saudi Arabia, seeking backing for his proposals.
Each piece was interlinked, he stressed, and depended on the compromises the other side might be prepared to make.
"And there's always tension as to when you put your card on the table as to which piece you're willing to do, when and how," said Kerry.
But he warned his efforts could ultimately fail, saying he could not tell when "the last pieces may decide to fall into place, or may fall on the floor, and leave the puzzle unfinished. That's exactly what makes this such a challenge".
Kerry has already spent three intense days shuttling between Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
On Sunday, he held more than an hour of talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II before flying on to Saudi Arabia for talks with King Abdullah at his desert residence outside Riyadh.
Jordan borders the occupied West Bank and under its 1994 peace treaty with Israel is recognised as playing a historic role in the guardianship of Muslim sites in east Jerusalem.
Saudi Arabia was the author of a 2002 Arab League peace initiative.
Kerry is on his 10th visit to the region since taking office less than a year ago, and kick-started nine months of direct negotiations in July after a three-year hiatus.
But bitter recriminations between the two sides, who have refused to budge on their mostly irreconcilable demands, have burst into the open during this trip.
Israeli and Palestinian officials have both said the emerging proposals appear to favour the other side.
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