Mitchell returns to Middle East on Sunday

Occupied Jerusalem:  US President Barack Obama's Middle East peace envoy will return to the region on Sunday, having postponed a trip this week over an Israeli colony plan, a senior Palestinian official said.

George Mitchell's visit had been expected to usher in indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks, but that has been thrown in doubt by Palestinian anger — echoed in Washington — at plans for 1,600 more homes for Jewish colonisers near occupied East Jerusalem.

"The Americans have told us that he will come on Sunday," said the Palestinian official, who declined to be named. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would meet Mitchell during his visit, the official said.

In Gaza, Palestinian fighters fired a rocket into Israel from the Gaza Strip yesterday, killing a Thai agricultural worker, while the European Union's foreign affairs chief was visiting the Hamas-controlled enclave.

It was the first strike from the territory to cause any fatalities since the end in January 2009 of Israel's Gaza war.

An hour before the attack, the EU's top diplomat, Briton Catherine Ashton, crossed into the Gaza Strip to tour UN facilities.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Russia to attend a meeting of the Middle East quartet group of the US, European Union, United Nations and Russia over the new Israeli colony plans.

Russia and the United Nations vowed to resuscitate Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.