
US envoy George  Mitchell appeared Friday to have failed to secure a key deal on Jewish  settlements aimed at paving the way for a resumption of Middle East peace  negotiations. 
 Map of the occupied West Bank, locating planned expansions of  Israel settle... The former senator shuttled between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin  Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud  Abbas on Friday, after having met with both leaders earlier this week. He has been trying to wrest a compromise on the thorny issue that would have  led to a three-way meeting between Netanyahu, Abbas and US President Barack  Obama on the sidelines of next week's UN  General Assembly. "Mitchell told us he did not reach an agreement with the Israelis on freezing  settlements," key Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told reporters after  Mitchell held talks with Abbas in the occupied West Bank. Mitchell met with Abbas after huddling with Netanyahu in the morning and was  to hold a second meeting with the premier in Jerusalem later  in the day. He has been aiming to get some kind of an Israeli moratorium on settlement  construction that would be acceptable to the Palestinians and enable the  resumption of peace talks that were suspended in late December. Netanyahu has so far rebuffed US calls to freeze settlement construction in  the West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, and Palestinians are sticking  to their demand for such a halt before negotiations can resume. Abbas told Mitchell that "the issue of a settlement halt is not up for  compromise," Erakat said.