Mitchell to Abbas: No more excuses, renew Mideast talks

           United States special Mideast envoy George Mitchell has urged Europe to step up pressure on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an attempt to kick-start stalled peace talks with Israel, the London-based A-Sharq-al-Awsat reported on Tuesday. "The time has come to stop finding excuses for avoiding a return to the negotiating table," the London paper quoted Mitchell as saying, citing French officials. Mitchell believed the Palestinians were showing little enthusiasm for talks because as inaction was safer than reentering dialogue when the outcome was so uncertain, the paper said. President Barack Obama's envoy is said to blame Abbas for frustrating his most recent attempt to coax the two sides into renewed discussions during a trip to the region in January. According to A-Sharq al-Awsat, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner defended Abbas, urging the envoy to recognize the risk to the Palestinian leader of returning to talks without international guarantees. Kouchner proposed reassuring Abbas with a clear declaration that the aim of any new talks would be the creation of a Palestinian within a set time frame of anything up to two years, the paper said. The declaration could come from the 'Quartet' of the U.S., the United Nations, the European Union and Russia ? or from either the UN Security council or an international committee set up for the purpose, Kouchner said. But Mitchell rejected out of hand French calls for an international conference and for U.S. guarantees to both Israel and the Palestinians. Instead, he is said to prefer indirect negotiations accompanied by a series of confidence-building measures on the ground in the West Bank. (16,15)