Arab ministers say they support the Palestinians' decision to stop direct talks with Israel unless the Israelis agree to halt all settlement construction in the West Bank.
But the ministers also said in a statement after meeting on Friday that they’ll give the U.S. another month to find a way to break the impasse.
The decision represents a compromise as the U.S. struggles to prevent a total collapse of direct negotiations between the two sides that began last month.
The committee groups foreign ministers from 13 Arab countries.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was in Sirte to seek the support of Arab leaders to pull out of the peace negotiations after Israel adamantly refused to extend a freeze on settlement building that expired on Sept. 26.
Last-minute efforts to reach a compromise appeared to have failed, with Israel silent on the moratorium and the Palestinians adamant they would not talk while settlers continued to build on land they want as a future state.
AlternativesArab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said earlier that the Arab leaders will begin drafting alternatives for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
"We will meet to formulate the beginning of alternatives within the framework that the negotiations are not bearing fruit," Moussa said after a meeting of the Arab League’s peace process follow-up committee in Libya.
"There are no talks at the moment because the position of the Israelis is very, very negative. They are not cooperating in the negotiations," Moussa said.
The committee would meet the Palestinian delegation on Friday night but would not advise Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas what he should do next, Moussa said.
The Arab League foreign ministers met in the Libyan town of Sirte to hear Abbas’ case for suspending talks with Israel until it extends a moratorium on Jewish settlement-building in the occupied West Bank.
Launched in Washington just five weeks ago, the talks veered into a dead end on Sept. 26 when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Nentayahu refused to extend a halt to construction of Jewish settlements, which he had said would last 10 months.
Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudainah said earlier the Palestinian leader would tell the Arab states that "resuming negotiations requires a full freeze of settlement activities."
Settlement expansion
Abbas has said he wants to go on negotiating, but cannot unless the building of new homes for Jewish settlers is frozen for "three to four months more to give peace a chance."
Palestinians regard settlement expansion as a threat to chances of a viable state on land Israel captured in a 1967 war.
Netanyahu says it would be tragic if Abbas walked away over an issue which he says is irrelevant to the possible outcome of talks — a peace deal to end 60 years of conflict and create a Palestinian state.
The United States wants the talks to continue and has been trying to find a formula to save the negotiations.
Senior Palestinian official Yasser Abd Rabbu said on Thursday he saw no hope of a serious peace process with Netanyahu, in some of the darkest comments to date on the U.S.-mediated talks.
Netanyahu, who heads a cabinet dominated by pro-settler parties, including his own Likud, has said he will not extend the freeze that his government had enforced for 10 months.
Abbas and Netanyahu met three times before the end of the moratorium.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) said on Saturday talks would not resume until Israel stopped settlement building on land where the Palestinians aim to found a state.
The United States and European Union had called on Israel to extend the settlement freeze. The expiry of the moratorium had been seen as an early obstacle facing U.S. President Barack Obama’s push to end the six-decade-old conflict within a year.