Kerry visits Israel amid reports of faltering Israeli-Palestinian talks

Jerusalem, Dec 5: Amid reports of Israeli-Palestinian talks losing momentum, US Secretary of State

arrived in

late on Wednesday.

Kerry has arrived in a bid to push forward negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, which appear to be stuck, mainly due to Israel's ongoing construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem settlements.

Israeli officials, on their part, said the Palestinians are "looking for reasons" to avoid the talks and drag their feet throughout the nine months allocated for the talks and Netanyahu demands that the Palestinian president acknowledges Israel as a Jewish state and work to end the incitement against Israel.

John Kerry will meet Israel President Netanyahu to establish talks

Netanyahu and Kerry will meet on Thursday morning . The visiting US secretary of state will also meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah later in the day and perhaps again with Netanyahu on Thursday evening.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Palestinian Radio that the Mideast talks are faltering. "Kerry must work to save the talks, to stop the deterioration of the talks caused by Israel's continuing settlement activity."

Other than the peace process, Kerry will also discuss the Iranian nuclear programme and interim agreement signed between the P5+1 countries and Iran in Geneva, which Netanyahu called a " historic mistake".

IANS