The United States is drafting an advanced plan to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a senior Palestinian negotiator said on Tuesday.

Saeb Erekat, the negotiator, added that the plan envisions a Palestinian statehood alongside Israel.

"The US administration is convinced that the region will not see peace and stability if a Palestinian statehood is not established," Erekat told Xinhua.

President Barack Obama's administration "is developing a plan to achieve this goal but we still don't know the details of the plan and the time it will take to implement," Erekat added.

Earlier Tuesday, a London-based Arabic daily reported that the US government showed Egypt a plan to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within a couple of years based on the two-state solution. However, Erekat said he "can not confirm this report."

Ashaarq al-Awsat newspaper said that president Obama showed the plan also to Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited Washington in May and asked him to respond to the plan within six weeks.

So far, the hawkish Netanyahu rejects US calls to freeze Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.

Abbas, who also met Obama in May, presented a document signed by Russia, the EU and several countries, showing phases of the creation of the Palestinian statehood.

Abbas's plan "sets the time tools and calls for observation teams" to follow up the establishing of the statehood in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to Erekat.

France, Britain, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the United Nations signed the Palestinian plan, a copy of it was showed to Syria too, Erekat says.

George Mitchell, Obama's envoy to the Middle East, arrived in Israel Tuesday and will hold a series of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials in a bid to revive the peace process and stalled negotiations.

(Xinhua News Agency June 10, 2009)