The US is seeking to bring Arab countries into efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that broke down more than four years ago, a senior Palestinian official said today.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government said it would resume regular transfers of millions of dollars in tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. This is a step bound to ease the self-rule government’s protracted cash crisis.

The decision came just days after President Barack Obama met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a visit to the region. Obama has said stabilising the Palestinian Authority, which has buckled under mounting debt, is key to US peace efforts.

Obama has sided with the Israeli view, and it is not clear how the US can bring the Palestinians back to the table without a settlement freeze.