Israel is ready to renew efforts to solve the dispute with Lebanon over the delineation of territorial waters in the Mediterranean, but will not accept Beirut dictating the terms of the negotiations, Energy Minister Karine Elharrar said this week. 

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The talks − mediated by the United States − were launched a year ago in an attempt to resolve the dispute, which has held up exploration in the potentially gas-rich area. The talks stalled in May.

US special envoy Amos Hochstein is due in both countries this month to try to give fresh impetus to the talks just as Lebanon has sought clarifications from the international community after Israel granted US oilfield services group Halliburton an offshore drilling contract.

"We need to look for a solution that leads to a breakthrough and not try to think in the old ways of drawing lines," Elharrar told Reuters in an interview in Paris, adding that she would speak to Hochstein soon. 

At the end of talks in May, Lebanese President Michel Aoun said there should be no preconditions. He rejected the US mediator's suggestions asking for negotiations to be based on Israeli and Lebanese border lines already submitted and registered with the United Nations. 

"We started [negotiations] by one line and then they [Lebanon] pushed the line. Again and again," Elharrar said. "This is not the way to have a negotiation. They cannot dictate the lines."

Earlier talks stalled after each side presented contrasting maps outlining proposed borders that increased the size of the disputed area.

Mohamed Ebeid, a Lebanese expert on the border talks and former director at the Information Ministry, said the new US mediator is due in the second half of October in Beirut.

"Unfortunately we have returned to internal bickering instead of going to the negotiations united," he told Reuters when asked about Lebanon changing its mind about the lines.

Since the talks stalled, Lebanon's former caretaker prime minister, Hassan Diab, and ministers of defense and public works, Maurice Salem and Ali Hamieh, approved a draft decree which would expand Lebanon's claim, adding around 1,400 square km (540 square miles) to its exclusive economic zone.

"We share a gas field and have to find a solution on how to use it so that each side will receive their fair share," Elharrar said. "We are willing to give it another shot."

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Maritime border talks between Lebanon and Israel scheduled for Wednesday have been postponed, and US mediators will now contact the two old foes separately, Israeli and Lebanese officials said on Monday.

The negotiations were launched in October, with delegations convening at a UN base to try to resolve a dispute about their maritime border that has held up hydrocarbon exploration in the potentially gas-rich area.

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Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said it had been agreed with the Americans that talks would be postponed for a few weeks.

"In the interim, they will do some shuttling in order to better prepare the next round of talks," he told Army Radio.

The talks are the culmination of three years of diplomacy by Washington.

Disagreement over the sea border has discouraged oil and gas exploration near the disputed line.

The sides presented contrasting maps for proposed borders in October, sources said at the time.

Steinitz said last week there had been no breakthrough after four rounds of talks and that Lebanon had "so far presented positions which add up to a provocation." He said he expected "many more hurdles and bust-ups" but hoped a breakthrough could be reached in a few months.

A Lebanese security source said the reason for the delay was Israel's rejection of Lebanese proposals.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun said this month the demarcation line should start from the land point of Ras Naqoura, as defined under a 1923 agreement, and extend seaward in a trajectory that a security source said extends the disputed area to some 2,300 sq km (890 sq miles) from around 860 sq km.

Steinitz said Lebanon had now changed its position seven times and was contradicting its own assertions.

The Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, which fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006, has said the talks are not a sign of peace-making with Israel.

Israel already pumps gas from huge offshore fields but Lebanon has yet to find commercial natural gas reserves in its own waters.

Agreement to hold the talks was announced weeks after the United States stepped up pressure on Hezbollah's allies in Lebanon, imposing sanctions on a senior politician from its main Shiite ally, the Amal party.

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