Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres postponed planned talks with a Palestinian delegation today, saying more work needed to be done first.
"The meeting will take place when the necessary preparations have been made to be sure of its success," Mr Peres's spokesman, Mr Yoram Dori, said without elaborating on the reasons for the delay to this evening's scheduled talks.
Earlier this week, the Israeli foreign minister held the first cabinet-level talks in months with the Palestinians, meeting new Interior Minister Abdelrazek al-Yahya and new Finance Minister Salam Fayad.
After those talks, foreign ministry spokesman Mr Noam Katz said Israel saw a narrow "window of opportunity" for resuming a political dialogue amid the general decrease in violence but warned it still saw no sign of a Palestinian Authority shift towards stopping "terrorist" attacks.
AFP