Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said last night talks with the Palestinians that he had suspended earlier in the day would resume today with a meeting between negotiators from both sides.
Appearing to backtrack on his previous announcement, Barak's office said: "The contacts that are aimed at examining whether there is a basis for the renewal of negotiations . . .will continue . . . tomorrow.
"The meeting is a continuation of the meetings that took place at the beginning of this week, and after such a meeting did not take place today," it said.
It said Israeli negotiator Mr Gilad Sher and his Palestinian counterpart Mr Saeb Erekat would meet today.
Palestinian senior negotiator Mr Mohammad Dahlan said Mr Barak's break in the talks as well as its speedy reversal had caught his side unawares.
"We were surprised by the sudden Israeli decision to halt negotiations and the retraction also surprised us. Halting the talks was unjustified and illogical," Mr Dahlan said.
"We hope this decision is the start of (the Israelis') withdrawal from their positions on final status issues."
Hours before, Mr Barak cancelled planned talks between Mr Sher and Mr Erekat, blaming Palestinian intransigence for the hiatus in what was apparently an effort to tighten the screws on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
"We decided on a brief timeout to summarise positions so far and to make our own assessment," Mr Danny Yatom, a senior adviser to Mr Barak, told Israel Radio.
Mr Yatom also called on the Palestinians to present "more constructive and moderate positions".
Mr Erekat said the Palestinians had consulted the Americans and the Europeans over the abrupt stop in the troubled negotiations.
In Washington, US President Bill Clinton said yesterday the talks had hit a stop-and-go phase because both parties were feeling exasperation as they try to settle the toughest issues.
"They're down to the difficult issues and they're both feeling the pressure of these hard issues and the press of time," President Clinton, who brokered the abortive Israeli-Palestinian summit at Camp David in July, told reporters.
"I don't think it's more complicated than that. And I think you should expect from time to time both sides to express some exasperation. And as long as they get back to work you should feel positive about that."
In Paris, Israel's acting foreign minister, Mr Shlomo Ben-Ami, denied after talks with French President Jacques Chirac on the Middle East that his government had suspended talks.
Mr Nasser al-Kidwa, the Palestinian UN observer, told the UN General Assembly's annual debate that the Palestinians still hoped to clinch a deal. "We want to believe that the Israeli positions are tactical positions and that the Israeli side in the end will abide by the agreed basis of the peace process."
The suspension put more pressure on President Clinton to engineer a deal before Mr Barak faces a threat of early elections when parliament return from recess in late October.
Palestinian official Mr Mahmoud Abbas said in an interview on Palestinian television that the Palestinians were not worried about a potential change in Israel's government. "This Israeli government has not offered us anything that will make us regret it if it's replaced by another," Mr Abbas said.
Mr Barak took pains to explain that only informal contacts, and not actual negotiations, had been held since peace talks ground to a halt at the US-brokered summit at Camp David in July.