RAMALLAH -- U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton asked Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to extend the deadline of Jan. 26 set by the Quartet to resume peace negotiations, a Fatah official said Thursday.

"Clinton asked Abbas last night not to stop the Jordanian-hosted talks after the Quartet's deadline," member of Fatah Central Committee Azzam Al-Ahmad told reporters in Ramallah.

Al-Ahmad added that Clinton has pledged that her country would continue to exert more efforts in order to achieve peace between Palestinians and Israelis in 2012.

But the Palestinian official stressed that the Palestinian leadership would seek other options if efforts fail to restart peace talks before Jan. 26.

Palestinians and Israelis are required to resume peace negotiations before the deadline of Jan. 26 set by the Quartet, which comprises the United States, Russia, the United Nations and Europe.

Palestinian and Israeli negotiators held two rounds of meetings earlier this month in Jordan's capital Amman to discuss the possibility of resuming the peace negations which stopped in October 2010, four week after they started.

The meetings were held under the auspices of Jordan and the international Quartet for peace.