Israel hopes that the Arab League's backing for indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks will help relaunch the peace process, said an Israeli government spokesman on Wednesday.

"Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu has been calling for Israeli-Palestinian talks for months, and we hope now the process will start," Mark Regev, the prime minister's foreign press advisor, told Xinhua.

During a special session in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, Netanyahu reportedly said that the conditions are ripening for the restart of negotiations between the two sides.

On Wednesday, Arab foreign ministers decided after their two- day meeting in Cairo to back indirect talk between Israel and the Palestinians for a duration of four months.

This decision is based on a U.S. proposal for the resumption of talks, said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have bogged down since December 2008, when the Jewish state launched a massive offensive against the Gaza Strip.

In an attempt to revive the peace talks, Netanyahu announced a 10-month freeze on construction in the West Bank settlements last November. However, the prime minister stressed that the construction limits would not be implemented in East Jerusalem, which has been seen for years as prospective capital of a future Palestinian state.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said that he rejects renewal of peace talks unless Israel completely stops settlement activities in the Palestinian territories.

(Xinhua News Agency March 4, 2010)