U.S. intervention sought as Mideast talks collapse

? The Palestinians called off a summit this week with the Israeli prime minister to show their dissatisfaction with Israel’s plans for a prisoner release. One Palestinian lawmaker Tuesday warned of a “major crisis,” calling for quick U.S. intervention.

The U.S.-backed “road map” peace plan has hit a series of snags in recent days, leading to the cancellation of the planned meeting between Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The move protested an Israeli plan to release some 440 Palestinian inmates today. Israel is not required under the road map to free prisoners, but Abbas has made it a key condition for further progress on the plan.

Palestinians were dissatisfied with the planned release, saying the list contained few long-serving detainees. Israel holds some 7,700 prisoners and is loath to release many of them while Palestinian militant groups are still armed — and the cease-fire they declared on June 29 still considered temporary.

Palestinian officials have argued 3,000 could be released without posing a risk to Israeli security, and militant groups have threatened to abandon the cease-fire if Israel fails to release enough prisoners.

Legislator Saeb Erekat, a leading spokesman for the Palestinians, called for U.S. involvement to avert “the development of a major crisis.”

“I believe that the only way to defuse this crisis is with the intervention of the American administration to ensure the implementation of the first phase of the road map,” he said.

U.S. envoy John Wolf has been in the region since Friday, meeting with Israeli and Palestinians security officials. A U.S. government official said that Assistant Secretary of State William Burns will be arriving next week. But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said no other high-level visits were planned even though the peace plan was encountering “very rough going.”

Both sides have not carried out obligations: For example, the Palestinians have not moved to disarm militants, and Israel has not frozen construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza or dismantled scores of unauthorized outposts. Israeli troops also remain in control of most West Bank towns.

Erekat reiterated a Palestinian desire for the deployment of monitors to guarantee and verify progress in the peace plan, which calls for an end to violence and a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip by 2005.

Both sides have turned to Washington to play a pivotal role in negotiating peace. Sharon and Abbas held separate summits with President Bush in late July, each seeking support for their positions. Sharon and Abbas last met on July 20.