Abbas, in Egypt for talks with President Hosni Mubarak, said the Palestinians and Israel had received no official US request to return to talks which stalled three weeks after their launch in September when an Israeli settlement freeze expired.

Asked if the Palestinian Authority would agree to resume the talks if a new settlement freeze did not include East Jerusalem, the Palestinian President said: "If there is no complete halt to settlements in all of the Palestinian territories including Jerusalem, we will not accept".

Israel has refused in the past to halt construction in East Jerusalem as part of any settlement freeze.

Netanyahu's cabinet approved a five-year blueprint on November 21 to accommodate more visitors at a Jewish holy site in the city, the Western Wall, revered as a remnant of one of two biblical temples. The site sits at a flashpoint in the conflict, next to the al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest site.