Both the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and Islamic Hamas movement welcomed on Wednesday the United States' attempts to help the Palestinians establish their statehood on the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel.

US peace envoy George Mitchell was sent to the region earlier this week. He held talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of Washington's effort to resume the stalled peace negotiations between the two sides.

Veteran Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters that President Mahmoud Abbas and Mitchell held "positive, in depth and constructive talks," adding that President Abbas listened to a detailed report on Mitchell's previous meetings with Israeli officials.

Mitchell told reporters in Ramallah that "America won't turn its back to the Palestinian people's aspiration to live in dignity and establish their independent state," adding "the only solution for the conflict is to achieve each other's aspirations in having two states."

However, he added that the two sides "have responsibilities in implementing the Road Map, in which I believe it is not only responsibilities, but also a joint interest for each of them to serve peace in the region."

"President Abbas reiterated the Palestinian (National) Authority's commitment to the Road Map plan and the principle of the two-state solution that ends the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories that began in June 1967," said Erekat.

In Gaza, deposed Prime Minister of Hamas government Ismail Haneya told reporters on Wednesday that Mitchell's remarks that "which held Israel responsible for Gaza war and the expansion of settlement, showed that there had been a clear positive change in the US position towards the Palestinians."

Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, who held talks in Cairo with Egypt's intelligence chief Omer Suleiman earlier on Tuesday welcomed any efforts that end the Israeli occupation and establish a statehood on the occupied territories and bring the Palestinian refugees back to their homes.

"Hamas movement won't be an obstacle before any serious movement that ends the occupation and establish a state with full sovereignty on the land, the border and the air," Mashaal told a news conference in Cairo on Tuesday.

Mitchell's remarks highlighted President Obama's intention to achieve peace in the Middle East by settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Obama's consistent demands that Israeli settlement constructions in the West Bank must freeze, which have led to an unprecedented coldness in Israel-US relations.

Israeli right-wing premier Benjamin Netanyahu, who took office in early April, refuses to halt the settlement expansion in the West Bank - a territory that would make the largest part of the sought Palestinian state. Netanyahu said the United States' calls should at least exclude the so-called natural growth of settlement.

The Israeli leader is to make a major address on Sunday outlining his peace policy.

Netanyahu has given no indication on what he will exactly say, where he is still in the process of holding consultations with his aides and other parties on the speech. Assumption has risen that he will finally endorse a Palestinian state, but with conditions.

However, the Palestinians have made it clear that they will not resume the peace talks with Israel until Netanyahu publicly voices support for the establishment of a Palestinian state and agrees to stop all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.

Mitchell urged Israel and Palestinians to meet their obligations under the US-backed Road Map peace plan, a sketch setting steps that the two sides have to take, ending up with a Palestinian statehood alongside Israel.

Israel has accepted the Road Map but Netanyahu has yet to explicitly endorse the establishment of the Palestinian state.

Erekat told reporters that the Palestinians had made a good progress in completing their obligations under the Road Map, "but Israel had not."

"The Palestinians have made significant progress in the areas of governance, finance and security sector reform in line with our Road Map obligations," Erekat said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 11, 2009)