Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas pledged today to pursue peace efforts with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's successor but warned of a new cycle of violence if the fragile peace process collapsed.
Mr Abbas painted a cautious and at times bleak outlook for Middle East peace efforts during a visit to the United Nations, where he also held closed-door talks with Israeli President Shimon Peres.
Speaking later before the Security Council, Abbas and other Arab leaders denounced Israeli settlement expansion, saying it was seriously jeopardising peace talks relaunched last November at a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, hosted by US president George W. Bush.
"Settlement activity is not only an obstacle but it risks undermining the peace process," Mr Abbas said a day after he met Mr Bush at the White House to try to keep negotiations alive.
Israel's UN envoy, Gabriela Shalev, accused Arab delegations of using the issue to "bash" Israel unfairly, saying they were abdicating their responsibility to denounce Hamas.
There is no longer serious talk about meeting Mr Bush's target of a peace deal, including agreement on creation of a Palestinian state, before he leaves office in January.
Talks have been complicated by political instability in Israel. Mr Olmert resigned this week in the face of corruption allegations and is staying on in a caretaker capacity while Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni tries to form a new coalition.
"I will pursue negotiations with Mr Olmert and I will never cease to negotiate even with his successor," Mr Abbas said. "We don't wish to waste the opportunities that are available."
But he said that unless Israel halts expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank, "it would be futile to dream of the peace that we all hope for. Because if we fail, if we do not attain peace, then the alternative poses a serious threat. And everyone knows what the alternative is.
"The alternative will plunge the entire region into the deadly cycle of violence once again. I don't even wish to imagine what that might lead us to," he added.
Talks between the sides have yielded little progress in the past year amid flareups in and around Gaza, including cross-border Hamas rocket fire that has sparked Israeli military action.
Speaking to the Council, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who has criticised Israeli settlement expansion, said the Palestinians as well as Israel have yet to fulfill all their obligations under a peace "road map."