The United States peace envoy to the Middle East Marten Indyk is to hold two separate meetings with the Israeli and the Palestinian negotiation teams later on Friday, a Palestinian official said.

Palestinian Chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told Xinhua that the meetings on Friday are part of the United States' contact "to rescue the peace negotiations between the two sides."

"The Palestinian side is opened to the United States' contacts to push the talks forward and committed to it until it ends on April 29," said Erekat.

Meanwhile, Erekat refused to comment on the meeting held in Jerusalem on Thursday night between the two negotiations' teams.

However, a Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that the meeting lasted for five hours without leading to a breakthrough to resolve the crisis in the negotiations.

The U.S.-sponsored direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which began in late July and ends on April 29, has been passing through a serious crisis.

The crisis began when Israel refused to free the prisoners for the extension of the talks and the Palestinians threatened that they will go for joining international treaties and agencies in response.