英语文摘:Kerry to meet Abbas in Ramallah

CAIRO, July 19 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday afternoon to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas over the relaunch of direct peace talks with Israel, according to independent Palestinian news agency Ma'an.

Kerry's visit came after he met on Friday morning in Amman, Jordan, with the Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat, who informed him about the Palestinian leadership's refusal to his peace talks resumption bid.

Palestinian leaders had a high-level meeting on Thursday to discuss the top U.S. diplomat's proposal and at the end decided not to resume peace negotiations unless Israel is committed to the 1967 Mideast war borders.

Kerry has been on shuttle diplomacy efforts during the last few months trying to convince the two sides to restart talks, which came to a halt about three years ago due to Israel's settlement construction in the West Bank.