UNITED NATIONS — In an attempt to seize on the momentum created by the new U.N. leadership, European diplomats yesterday tried to push Secretary-General Ban into a deep and early involvement in Israeli-Palestinian Arab diplomacy.

After meeting Mr. Ban yesterday, the European Union’s foreign-policy point man, Javier Solana, told reporters that he hoped to convene a high-level meeting in Europe as early as this month between Mr. Ban and top diplomats from America, Europe, and Russia, hoping to revive the steering group known as the quartet, which oversees the so-called “road map” for ending the Israeli-Palestinian Arab conflict.

According to American officials, however, Washington remains skeptical on a quartet meeting so early in Mr. Ban’s term, which began on January 1.

A former South Korean foreign minister who is yet to familiarize himself with the intricate details of Middle Eastern issues, Mr. Ban has not yet decided whether to attend such a quartet meeting, Turtle Bay officials say.

The team that has steered Turtle Bay’s politics under Mr. Ban’s predecessor, Kofi Annan, is currently preparing a comprehensive briefing paper meant to guide the new secretary-general on issues related to the Middle East.

However, Mr. Ban hopes to put in a new political team that, as The New York Sun reported yesterday, would be headed for the first time in decades by an American — the current ambassador to Indonesia, B. Lynn Pascoe.

Mr. Ban plans to attend an African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on January 29, according to his spokeswoman, Michele Montas. He is yet to decide whether he would make an earlier stop in Paris to attend a conference of donors to Lebanon or a quartet meeting that Europeans seek to convene there.

“Within the Middle East, I’d like to insist as strongly as possible that we have to tackle the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians,” Mr. Solana said after his meeting with Mr. Ban yesterday, adding that he hoped the new secretary-general would play a “strong role” within the quartet.

Europe is “going to call the first meeting of the quartet soon, probably this month” at the sidelines of the January 25 Paris donors meeting on Lebanon, Mr. Solana added. “This must be for us the priority of great, great significance in this period of time.”

But America “has not yet signed on” to such a meeting, an American State Department official told the Sun.

“We are trying to figure out what would be accomplished,” the official, who asked for anonymity for protocol reasons, said. Washington is wary of having Mr. Ban tackle one issue around the globe after another.

“Today, we talk Somalia; tomorrow, it’s Burma,” he added.

Washington is likely also hoping for the new, American-friendly team to gel at Turtle Bay, as well as for the Bush administration to determine the level of priority that it will give to Israeli-Palestinian Arab issues in the context of the larger regional policy.

Jerusalem is also hesitant, as the embattled defense minister, Amir Peretz, yesterday detailed a new peace plan that defers on several key issues from the American-backed road map. Mr. Peretz’s proposal ignited a new debate inside his Labor Party and with rival politicians on the right.

Meanwhile, the intensifying civil war between political factions in the West Bank and Gaza pit the Western-backed Fatah Party against the Islamist Hamas, completing a murky picture that seems far from ripe for a major new diplomatic initiative.