A senior Palestinian official on Thursday affirmed that there were no contacts with Israel to resume stalled peace talks.

"There has been no sort of contacts with the Israeli government recently," said Nabil Shaath, a member of the Palestinian negotiation team.

Shaath was commenting on Israeli media reports that staff from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' office and officials at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office exchanged messages to discuss the resumption of the negotiations.

The U.S.-brokered peace talks broke down in September, when Israel resumed building in the West Bank settlements after a 10- month partial moratorium.