“We urge all sides to exercise restraint,” Mitchell said as he talked to reporters along with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat after the meeting with Abbas.

“What is needed now is a period of calm, quiet in which we can go forward in the effort in which we are engaged,” he added.

Mitchell said that the Palestinian leader raised with him the issue of the four Palestinians who were killed at the hands of Israeli troops on Sunday and Saturday near Nablus in the West Bank.

Mitchell, who earlier met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pointed out that the US administration of President Barack Obama intended to go ahead with efforts with the Palestinians and Israelis “to establish the conditions which will make possible the early commencement of proximity talks.”

Erekat said that Abbas had asked the United States to “restrain the latest dangerous Israeli escalation in Nablus.”

He condemned Netanyahu’s latest insistence on continuing the building of settlements in East Jerusalem, but said that the Palestinians were “doing their utmost to remove obstacles impeding the holding of indirect negotiations” with Israel.

Abbas is spending a week of convalescence in the Jordanian capital after he suffered bruises when he slipped a week ago in a bedroom during a visit to Tunisia, Palestinian officials said.

Mitchel also held a meeting with King Abdallah to brief him on the outcome of his meetings with Abbas and Netanyahu that sought to clear impediments to the resumption of peace negotiations, according to a royal court statement.

“The monarch discussed with Senator Mitchell the steps that should be taken to ensure the achievement of tangible progress in the Palestinian-Israeli talks that permits the setting up of an independent and viable Palestinian state that lives in peace with Israel,” the statement said. “King Abdallah praised the ongoing US endeavors to resolve the conflict on the basis of the two-state vision,” it added.

The Jordanian leader “also stressed the need for putting an end to Israel’s unilateral actions in the occupied Palestinian territories, particularly its provocative measures that seek to change the identity of East Jerusalem and endanger holy places there.”