A meeting between Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and the US Middle East envoy George Mitchell has been delayed to Wednesday, the chief Palestinian negotiator said. The first such meeting since indirect peace talks with Israel were formally relaunched on May 9 was to be held Tuesday but it was rescheduled, Saeb Erakat told selfnews on Monday, without providing further details. US officials have said Mitchell is expected in the region this week but they have not yet said when he would arrive or released details about his schedule. Mitchell left the region a week ago after convincing Israel and the Palestinians to launch an initial round of US-mediated 'proximity talks.' The indirect negotiations were first agreed on in March but the initiative collapsed days later when Israel announced plans to build 1,600 settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden. The Palestinians eventually agreed to the talks after receiving US assurances that the project would be frozen. Jerusalem and Jewish settlements are among the thorniest issues in efforts to achieve a peace deal. Israel, which captured east Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it, considers the Holy City its 'eternal and indivisible' capital, while the Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state. The last round of direct negotiations between the two sides collapsed in December 2008 when Israel launched a devastating war on the Gaza Strip in a bid to halt Palestinian rocket fire aimed at Israeli towns. 