Rami Hamdallah, the Nablus academic who has been tasked by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas with forming a new Ramallah-based government, is seen by Israel as a moderate pragmatist, commentators said on Monday.

Israel gave no official response to the announcement late Sunday that Hamdallah would take over as premier after Salam Fayyad stood down, but Israeli pundits described him as a figure who would be acceptable to the West and would not pose any internal threat to Abbas.

The United States on Sunday welcomed the selection of university chief Rami Hamdallah as next Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority.

"We congratulate Dr. Rami Hamdallah, the next Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority," Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement. "His appointment comes at a moment of challenge, which is also an important moment of opportunity."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday called on Rami Hamdallah to form a new government, and the university chief said he accepted the task as the term of Salam Fayyad formally ended.

"President Abbas has asked me to form a new government and I have accepted," Hamdallah, the president of Al-Najah University in the West Bank city of Nablus, told Agence France Presse.

Top U.S. diplomat John Kerry spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas about settlements and the Mideast peace process, the State Department said Friday.

The calls -- Thursday with Netanyahu and Friday with Abbas -- come on the heels of a State Department warning directed at Israel that continued settlement activity in east Jerusalem was "counterproductive" to efforts to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians.

Peace between Israelis and Palestinians is "still possible,” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday, hailing U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's efforts to revive stalled talks.

In a speech to the World Economic Forum in the town of al-Shunah on the banks of the Dead Sea in Jordan, Abbas called on Israel to "end the occupation of our lands,” evacuate settlements and free Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli opposition leader Shelly Yachimovich on Sunday urged Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to seize the chance of resuming peace negotiations as the two met for talks at his West Bank headquarters.

According to a statement from her office, the two discussed "the situation in the Middle East and the chances of making progress between Israel and the Palestinians".

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Beijing on Monday, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu due to follow him later this week.

Abbas's three-day trip -- the first by a Middle Eastern leader since Xi took office in March -- ends Tuesday, overlapping with a five-day visit to China by Netanyahu that begins in Shanghai on Monday and ends in the capital.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday announced the start of talks on forming a national unity government, the official WAFA news agency said.

The announcement came on the last day of the statutory two-week period after the April 13 resignation of prime minister Salam Fayyad from the Palestinian Authority that governs the West Bank.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discussed U.S. efforts to revive the Middle East peace process with the Palestinian leader on Sunday and was to meet Turkey's prime minister for talks on getting its relations with Israel back on track.

Kerry and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who have met several times recently, talked for an hour-and-a-half to "continue the conversation that they've been having for several weeks now about how to get both sides (the Palestinians and the Israelis) back to the table," a State Department official said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Istanbul on Sunday, the State Department said, as a U.S.-led peace push focusing on the Palestinian economy steps up.

Kerry and Abbas, who have met several times recently, will "continue the conversation that they've been having for several weeks now about how to get both sides back to the table," a State Department official said.