World Bulletin/News Desk

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has asked the Palestinian Authority (PA) to delay a draft resolution at the U.N. Security Council for a timetable for ending the Israeli occupation to early next year, a Palestinian official has said.

"Kerry wants us to delay the draft resolution until early next year to give room for him to present ideas [for resuming peace talks]," Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) member Hanna Omaira told Anadolu Agency on Thursday.

"He [Kerry] wants us to delay the Palestinian move at the U.N. Security Council until after next month's Congress election," he said.

Palestinian-Israeli peace talks ground to halt in April after Israel failed to honor an earlier promise to release a number of Palestinian prisoners.

Palestinians plan to present a draft resolution at the U.N. Security Council that, according to recent statements by PA President Mahmoud Abbas at the U.N. General Assembly, would seek to achieve a "two-state solution," providing the Palestinians with a sovereign state inside pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

On Wednesday, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Kerry was seeking to give fresh impetus to the stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace talks in order to counter the Palestinian draft resolution.

According to the paper, the U.S. administration believes the Palestinian request threatens to put the peace process in crisis.

It would also put Washington, which hopes to maintain its Arab allies in its coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant group, in a difficult position if it vetoes the draft resolution, the paper reported.