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The U.S. mediator, met Israeli Defense Minister

07 March 2010 01:27 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. George Mitchell, the U.S. mediator, met Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Tel Aviv, an Israeli spokesman said. In keeping with Mitchell’s low-key style, he made no public comment.

He was to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a day later. Officials expect discussion on formats for the four months of "proximity talks" to which Abbas agreed last week after a year of demanding Israel end settlement building before negotiations could resume.

Though violence is low compared to the bloodshed in the early part of the last decade, tensions are rising over land and holy sites around Jerusalem and the West Bank since Netanyahu came to power at the head of a right-led coalition a year ago, adding urgency to U.S. and European pressure for peace talks.

Clashes on Friday between Palestinians and Israeli forces at Jerusalem’s flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque drew a call for restraint all round from the U.N. Security Council and an accusation from Abbas that Israeli "provocation" aimed to wreck peace moves and risked sparking a "war of religion" across the Middle East.