Officials from Major League Baseball helped keep the talks alive.
But Mr. Barak and Mr. Arafat pledged separately to keep the talks alive.
He said: 'We have battled to keep the world trade talks alive.
This is essential to Europe's ability to liberalise its farm trade, which in turn is a prerequisite for keeping the Doha round of trade talks alive.
The Bush administration said it believed both sides could have done more to keep the talks alive, and encouraged the parties to convene again.
Mr. Abbas called Washington to describe his predicament, which produced a phone call from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to Mr. Netanyahu, demanding steps to keep the indirect talks alive.
The Obama administration's envoy to the region, George J. Mitchell, met repeatedly in recent days with Mr. Abbas and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in hopes of keeping the new talks alive.
The American proposals to Israel came amid a frenzy of diplomatic horse-trading, with the administration maneuvering furiously to keep the talks alive while Mr. Netanyahu appeared to be trying to extract a high price for acquiescing on settlements.
JERUSALEM — Israel's decision this weekend to end its freeze on West Bank Jewish settlement construction sent diplomats on three continents scurrying on Monday to keep the Middle East peace talks alive.
