RAMALLAH, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian negotiator on Wednesday called on the United States "to take a real step forward" by starting working on the establishment of a Palestinian state.

    Rather than proposing guarantees to resume Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Washington should "endorse a Palestinian statehood living alongside Israel on the 1967 borders in deeds, not in words," said Saeb Erekat, the chief negotiator.

    "This doesn't harm the negotiations and this is the goal of the peace process that U.S. President Barack Obama had talked about," Erekat told Voice of Palestine radio.

    According to Erekat, Washington was talking about offering a letter of guarantees to Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to restart their talks, stalled since Israel started Gaza war a year ago.

    "Letters of guarantees are unneeded," Erekat said, stressing that such letters will not oblige Israel to halt Jewish settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

One killed, 4 wounded in Israeli airstrike on Gaza

Doctors treat a wounded Palestinian at Nassir hospital after an Israeli air strike in the central Gaza Strip January 5, 2010. A Palestinian militant was killed and four wounded during an Israeli airstrike in southeastern Gaza Strip late Tuesday, witnesses and medical sources said.  (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    GAZA, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian militant was killed and four wounded during an Israeli airstrike in southeastern Gaza Strip late Tuesday, witnesses and medical sources said. Full story

Fatah: No clear plan for resuming peace talks with Israel

    RAMALLAH, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian Fatah party official said Tuesday no clear scheme has emerged to resume Israeli-Palestinian peace process despite intensified efforts to restart the talks.

    "We are still waiting a chance to be given to movement Egypt has exerted basically to resume the negotiations with the Israeli side," Azzam al-Ahmad, a leader of President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, told Voice of Palestine radio. Full story

PNA: Israel sabotages peace by expanding settlements

    RAMALLAH, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian government headed by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Monday accused Israel of sabotaging the Middle East peace by expanding settlements in the Palestinian territories.

    The government said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting held in Ramallah on Monday that the success of peace process "needs a complete cessation of settlements in the Palestinian territories." Full story

Special Report: Palestine-Israel Conflicts