The Palestinians on Wednesday expressed full backing for US efforts to salvage the crisis-hit peace talks, despite announcing a controversial move to seek international recognition.

The Palestinians on Wednesday expressed full backing for US efforts to salvage the crisis-hit peace talks, despite announcing a controversial move to seek international recognition.

US Secretary of State John Kerry was on Wednesday scrambling to save his faltering Middle East peace efforts just hours after the Palestinians publicly reneged on a commitment to freeze such moves.

What triggered the crisis was Israel's refusal to release 26 Palestinian prisoners by a weekend deadline, prompting a Palestinian move to sign 15 international treatises as a way of unilaterally furthering their claim for statehood.

Shortly afterwards, Kerry said he was cancelling an imminent a trip to the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Despite the move, a senior Palestinian official insisted Ramallah was committed to the US peace efforts and hoped Kerry's efforts would be renewed "in the coming days".

"Kerry knows the reality. We don't want these efforts to finish," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's executive committee.