DHAKA: US Secretary of State John Kerry cancelled plans to travel on Wednesday to Ramallah after both the Israelis and the Palestinians announced moves likely to scuttle the peace talks.

‘We are no longer travelling tomorrow,’ a senior State Department official said, shortly after Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said the Palestinians would seek membership of 15 UN agencies.

Israel also announced new tenders for housing settlements. Under the terms of a July accord for resuming the talks after a three-year break, both sides had vowed not to take such moves for nine months.

Israel has also failed to release this weekend as agreed a fourth and final group of Palestinian prisoners, ahead of an April 29 deadline for a peace deal.

Kerry called on both sides to show restraint, after holding more than four hours of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a surprise trip late Monday to Israel.

But Kerry told a press conference after taking part in talks on Ukraine at NATO that he was not sure yet whether he would return to the Middle East region as had been announced only hours earlier.

‘My team is on the ground meeting with the parties even tonight, the top US diplomat said, reports The Times of India.

BDST: 1320 HRS, APR 02, 2014