* Gloomy outlook for U.S.-backed talks from Palestinians * Palestinian negotiator urges Obama to blame Israel By Mohammed Assadi RAMALLAH, West Bank, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are unlikely to resume any time soon, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Monday, blaming Israel for the impasse and urging Washington to do the same. "The gap is still wide and Israel does not give a single sign of meeting its obligations under the road map, halting settlement activities and resuming negotiations where they left off," he told Voice of Palestine radio. "I do not see any possibility for restarting peace talks in the near future." The U.S.-backed peace "road map" of 2003, which charts a course to Palestinian statehood, commits Israel to halting settlement activity in the occupied West Bank. "If President (Barack) Obama's administration cannot make Israel abide by its commitments, it has to announce that Israel is the party that is obstructing the launching of peace negotiations," Erekat said, referring the road map agreements. Resisting U.S. pressure to comply, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out a complete cessation of construction within settlements, saying the needs of growing settler families must be accommodated. Israel also accuses Palestinians of failing to meet their road map commitments to curb violence and incitement against Israel -- notably by Hamas Islamists who control the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu has also rejected Palestinian demands to abide by what they said were land-for-peace understandings reached with his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, in a year of negotiations that followed a U.S.-sponsored peace conference in November 2007. CLINTON REPORT On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton handed Obama a less-than-glowing assessment of Middle East peace efforts. Her status report followed separate meetings in Washington between Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell and Israeli and Palestinian negotiators aimed at narrowing the gap and restarting direct talks suspended since December. Obama is sending Mitchell back to the region for a fresh attempt at restarting peace talks, and Clinton will consult with Arab foreign ministers on the subject in Morocco on Nov. 2-3, a U.S. administration official said last week. Netanyahu has called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to resume negotiations immediately without preconditions. Locked in a power struggle with Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel, Abbas last week called presidential and parliamentary elections for January -- but Hamas said it would not cooperate, raising the possibility any vote could further deepen the schism between the West Bank and Hamas-run Gaza. Few analysts believe there is a high risk of Palestinian frustration turning into a new uprising of the kind seen in the years of Intifada from 2000. However, clashes between youths and Israeli police around Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque, most recently on Sunday, have raised concerns about greater instability. (Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Writing by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Samia Nakhoul)
Soumoud Saadat, daughter of Ahmed Saadat, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), looks on during a protest calling for her father's release from Israeli jails, at ...
