Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas urged the Quartet on Monday to issue a clear statement over Israeli settlements when it meets this month, a senior aide told AFP.

Speaking by telephone from Amman, Nabil Abu Rudeina said Abbas had urged the Middle East diplomatic Quartet to publish a statement which calls for an end to settlement activity in the occupied territories and which clearly outlines the terms of reference for peace talks with Israel.

"President Abbas asked the US administration and the Quartet to make a clear statement about ending settlement activity and determining the terms of reference for negotiations on the basis of the 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as the capital," he said.

Abbas's demands were laid out at a meeting with David Hale, senior assistant to US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, in the Jordanian capital Amman.

Following the collapse of direct peace talks with Israel late last year, the Palestinians, with backing from Britain, France and Germany, are pushing for the Quartet to lay down clearer parameters for any new peace negotiations.

The parameters would include a reference to the borders that existed before the 1967 Six Day War, and the establishment of Jerusalem as the capital of both states.

The Palestinians also want the Quartet to issue a condemnation of continuing Israeli settlement expansion.

Shortly after Abbas's meeting, Palestinian negotiators Saeb Erakat and Mohammed Shtayeh also held talks with Hale and Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair, Abu Rudeina said.

On April 15, key representatives of the Quartet -- which groups the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- are to meet in Berlin for top-level talks on the deadlock in the peace negotiations.