New York ? With a tense week ahead for the future of the Middle East, the United States and Europe scrambled Sunday for a strategy that would help avoid a jarring showdown over whether to admit an independent Palestine as a new United Nations member. Instead, they sought to guide Israel and the Palestinians back into the tough bargaining on a long-sought peace agreement.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton discussed the current trajectory in New York, in which the Palestinian plan to gain statehood and membership at the U.N. would run headfirst into an American veto in the Security Council, and possible Israeli recriminations.

Yet there was no apparent and immediate solution to the many problems that have hindered Mideast peace efforts for months. Diplomats were working feverishly as part of an increasingly desperate effort to guide the two parties back into direct negotiations, but were tight-lipped on whether the slim chances for a breakthrough were improving.

“We are meeting to talk about the way forward,” Clinton said as she shook hands with Ashton in a New York hotel. She declined to say if mediators were making progress.

The Palestinians are frustrated by their inability to win from Israel concessions such as a freeze on settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. And with violence out of the question and bilateral talks with Israel failing, they see the U.N. route as the only viable route for progress in the short term.

To address the Palestinian concerns, Western officials were discussing the possibility of including some timeframes, however vague, in any statement put out by the Mideast peace mediators — the U.S., EU, U.N. and Russia — known as the Quartet, officials said. These would focus on the restart of Israeli-Palestinian talks and signs of tangible progress.

Envoys from all four gathered Sunday in New York and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with Quartet envoy Tony Blair. A further meeting of Quartet officials was planned for today, officials said, with Ashton possibly presenting some ideas to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the same day.

The timeframes wouldn’t be deadlines, as such, but would seem to address the Palestinian desire to see quick action. The offer would come with an unchanged message that Washington would veto a Palestinian bid at the Security Council for U.N. recognition and membership, but at the very least it would represent a dignity-saving compromise for Abbas’ U.S.-backed government.

The alternative concern is that an embarrassment for his government would embolden Hamas, which the U.S. and Israel consider a terrorist organization and which would be far less eager to negotiate a two-state settlement with the Jewish nation.

The irony is that only 12 months ago, President Barack Obama said he wanted the U.N. to be welcoming Palestine as its newest member this year. But talks broke down long ago, and the U.S. is in the unenviable position of leading the opposition to something it actually supports, fearful a Palestinian victory might cause a debilitating rift with Israel and set the talks back further.

American officials were working to secure additional opposition to recognition, officials said. Without nine affirmative votes in the 15-member Council, the Palestinian resolution would fail, and Washington wouldn’t have to act alone.

U.S. officials believe six other members may vote against or abstain, meaning the Palestinians would fall short. That tally could not be immediately confirmed.