George Mitchell, US special envoy to the Middle East, said on Thursday that he was eager for a quick resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks even as a senior Israeli official expressed pessimism about clinching a deal any time soon.

Mr Mitchell, speaking as he met Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, in Jerusalem during his latest visit to the troubled region, said: “We are going to continue with our efforts to achieve an early relaunch of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, because we believe that is an essential step toward achieving comprehensive [Middle East] peace.”