Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Monday ruled out resuming peace talks with Israel in the near future.

"The gap is still wide and Israel doesn't signal any sign to respect its commitments under the Road Map peace plan," Erekat told Voice of Palestine radio.

He added that Israel must stop Jewish settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and accept to resume the negotiations from the point they stopped at in order to enable the restart of the peace process.

The Palestinians refuse to go again to the negotiations since the settlement activities bite into lands supposed to be part of the future Palestinian statehood.

Erekat said that the US administration must press Israel to respect the Road Map's obligations in order to launch "fruitful, active peace negotiations."

"If Obama's administration failed to oblige Israel to commit by its obligations, it should then declare that Israel was the party that obstruct the resumption of the peace talks," Erekat said.

Erekat remarks were made as Israeli and Palestinian negotiator held separate sessions of talks with Obama's Middle East envoys and US officials in Washington to look into prospects of launching the Israeli-Palestinian peace process again.

(Xinhua News Agency October 27, 2009)