US Middle East envoy George Mitchell said today an Arab peace initiative should be part of a planned US drive to create a Palestinian state.
His comments came as Israelis killed two Palestinian men in two separate violent incidents in the West Bank.
"The US is committed to the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state where the aspirations of the Palestinian people to control their destiny are realised. We want the Arab peace initiative to be part of the effort to reach this goal," Mr Mitchell said after talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
But he did not elaborate on what part the Arab initiative might play in US attempts to mediate a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians.
US leaders including President Barack Obama have made references to the Arab peace plan without ever endorsing the Arab demand that Israel withdraw from all the land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war - the West Bank including East Jerusalem, the Syrian Golan Heights, and the Gaza Strip.
Israeli troops killed a Palestinian protester in the West Bank today, and a Jewish security guard shot dead a Palestinian who infiltrated a Jewish settlement, also in the occupied area.
Palestinian hospital officials said a 30-year-old man died of a wound to the chest during a protest at the village of Bilin, site of almost weekly protests against the separation barrier which Israel is building in the Palestinian territory.
A witness who took part in the protest, said Basem Ibrahim Abu Rahmeh, a distant relative, was talking to soldiers when troops fired teargas grenades at protesters.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said some 100 protesters had thrown stones and other objects at soldiers and tried to damage the barrier in a protest that the military had declared illegal.
Earlier today a Palestinian with a knife infiltrated a Jewish settlement in the southern part of the occupied West Bank and was shot dead by a security guard, the Israeli army said.
Reuters