JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A familiar atmosphere of crisis returned to peacemaking between Israel‘s new government and the Palestinians on Monday after negotiations on implementing a land-for-security deal broke up in deadlock. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, in a statement, showed his first public sign of frustration over Palestinian refusal to accept his proposal to delay implementing parts of an Israeli handover of West Bank land mandated by last year‘s Wye River Memorandum. The statement issued by Barak‘s office accused the Palestinians of „reacting with rigidity“ to his plan to fold into a final peace pact the last stage of a three-phase West Bank pullback agreed under the interim U.S.-brokered accord. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, joining a round of finger-pointing following talks that ended in disagreement on Sunday between Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams, charged Israel was acting in bad faith. „This confirms what I have said from the beginning, that this is an attempt to avoid the accurate and honest implementation of what has been agreed upon,“ Arafat told reporters in Gaza. The United States appeared, for now, preferred to stay out of the burgeoning dispute. Asked about the impasse, a U.S. embassy spokesman said a timetable for implementation of Wye „was something the parties will have to work out“. The deal obliges Israel to make a series of troop withdrawals phased over 12 weeks from 13 percent of the West Bank in parallel with Palestinian steps against Moslem militants and other security measures. Barak‘s predecessor, right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu, signed the Wye accord last October and suspended it in December, alleging Palestinian violations after a first-phase Israeli handover of two percent of the West Bank. After defeating Netanyahu in Israel‘s May general election, Barak, leader of the centre-left One Israel alliance, pledged to carry out the land-for-security accord in full if Arafat insists – a promise reiterated on Monday by his foreign minister. „If they don‘t accept (changes), we will honour it,“ David Levy said on Israel Radio, insisting there was no crisis. Barak, who took office last month, believes a delay in the final stage – under which several Jewish settlements would be isolated – would prevent friction in the volatile West Bank that could harm chances to conclude a permanent peace deal. „Surprise is being expressed in the Prime Minister‘s Office that the Palestinians are refraining from examining with us a more successful implementation of the Wye River Memorandum by wrapping it into talks on a permanent settlement,“ the statement issued by Barak‘s office said. „The Prime Minister‘s Office expresses the hope that the constructive proposals raised by the prime minister will be considered with all due seriousness by the Palestinians,“ it said after Sunday‘s talks ended with no resumption date. A spokesman for Barak said on Sunday that Israel aims to begin implementing some of the outstanding pledges under the Wye deal on October 1. Palestinians have demanded Israeli pullbacks begin in three weeks. Palestinians said their patience was wearing thin and accused Barak of duplicity. „Publicly he says he won‘t change the Wye deal if the Palestinians reject (its modification), but privately he and his people threaten us if we don‘t (accept his proposals),“ said Nabil Amr, Palestinian minister of parliamentary affairs. „The problem lies with Barak… He‘s trying to play Netanyahu‘s game by saying that he doesn‘t want to implement because of the settlers. This is unacceptable,“ Amr said.