国际英语新闻：Abbas rejects U.S. request to set date for direct talks without reference

Meanwhile, the PLO executive committee, which held a meeting in Ramallah chaired by Abbas, announced in a statement issued after the meeting that it is still sticking to the demand of defining a peace reference to the talks and halting settlement activities before launching any direct talks with Israel.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, the committee's secretary general, told a news conference at the end of the meeting that the PLO executive committee concluded that the only way to ensure the direct negotiations "is to define a reference for the talks and the complete cessation of settlement activities."

"Our stance of halting settlement, mainly in East Jerusalem, and defining a reference for the peace talks are the guarantees that would ensure the negotiations," Abed Rabbo said, adding " without these guarantees, the talks would be absurd and would immediately collapse."

He added that the PLO executive committee "welcomed the decision of the Arab League (AL) Committee on the Peace Process, which decided in Cairo on Thursday to give the Palestinians the opportunity to decide when to start the direct talks with Israel."

"The AL committee decision and the PLO decision are similar, mainly in the issues of defining a reference for the direct talks, the complete cessation of settlement activities, mainly in East Jerusalem, and the establishment of the independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967."