French diplomats met potential allies yesterday to rally support for a draft UN plan setting a two-year deadline for Palestinian statehood talks.

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius met the Arab League secretary-general Nabil Elaraby with Egyptian and Palestinian ministers.

The French see their draft as more palatable than a Jordanian-backed resolution also under discussion.

European countries are divided over the French plan.

US Secretary of State John Kerry met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday as the US and Israel developed responses to the draft resolutions.

But before departing for the Rome talks, Mr Netanyahu took a hard line and said he would not allow others to dictate conditions that might compromise Israel’s security.

For the US, however, the issue is less clear-cut.

The Obama administration is reluctant to do anything that could interfere in Israel’s coming election, but is being pressed by allies to endorse a negotiating framework that adheres to publicly declared US policy.

The draft views the 1967 borders as the basis for dividing the land, which President Barack Obama has publicly backed.

However, it doesn’t include Israeli conditions such as Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.

Palestinian UN ambassador Riyad Mansour said Palestinians were planning a resolution in a form that can be voted on today.

What that resolution says will depend on the outcome of high-level negotiations in Europe, Mr Mansour said, adding the French draft was “very, very close to Arab ideas” and included a timeframe for negotiations.

But Palestine “wants to define clearly the end to occupation,” he said.

He stressed the Palestinians will not return to direct negotiations with Israel and strongly support the French proposal for an international conference to promote a peace deal.

“We tried direct negotiations for 20 years and they failed,” Mr Mansour said. “That is history.”

Mr Kerry met the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany in Paris late on Monday.

The discussions continued in London yesterday with Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and the head of the Arab League.