The Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat has called for a return to negotiations with Israel under international sponsorship and with the participation of Arab countries.
He also called for the implementation of both the Tenet Agreement and George Mitchell report.
Peace talks collapsed in January 2001, just before Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon swept to power and more than three months into a Palestinian revolt against the Israeli occupation that has cost the lives of at least 1,374 Palestinians and 483 Israelis.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters in Rome he was not prepared to table an American plan with specific deadlines.
However, an official in Bush's travelling party said the administration was consulting friends and allies on the idea.
"We're talking about how to chart the way forward and when we have something to say publicly we will. The idea is, at some point, to lay out how we move forward," the official said.
Another American official suggested the Bush administration could offer a schedule for discussing the thorniest issues - borders, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees - along lines suggested by Arab leaders and others.
Israel and the Palestinians accuse each other of destroying the 1993 Oslo interim peace accords that were supposed to lead to a final settlement of their 54-year-old conflict.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said today that Italy was offering to host exploratory Middle East peace talks in Sicily.
It was unclear whether the Italian leader, speaking to reporters at the end of a NATO-Russia summit near Rome, had mentioned the proposal to other leaders on Tuesday. Nor did he say whether the idea had been accepted.
An Italian government official said the proposal was only in embryonic form.