The letter was published on Wednesday, a day after Palestinian and Israeli negotiators held their first face-to-face meeting in more than 15 months in the Jordanian capital.

"The peace process has failed, it's finished, it's not worth desperately trying to resuscitate a corpse," he wrote in the letter published in Palestinian newspapers.

"Consider 2012 as the year of massive peaceful popular resistance against colonialism, aggression, the Judaisation of Jerusalem, the blockade and roadblocks," wrote Barghuti, who is serving several life terms for involvement in anti-Israeli attacks.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met on Tuesday at the initiative of Jordan and the international peacemaking Quartet -- composed of the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia.

The talks were characterised as "positive" though no breakthrough emerged. The Israelis and Palestinians have agreed to meet again in Jordan shortly.

In August, Barghuti told AFP in an interview conducted through his lawyer, that he was fully supportive of a Palestinian bid for full UN membership and also encouraged mass protests against the occupation.

An influential leader with widespread support among the Palestinian public, Barghuti is known for being a lifelong activist who supported the Oslo peace process in the 1990s.

But Israelis accuse him of masterminding the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, that erupted in 2000.

He was arrested in 2002 and two years later, sentenced to five life terms for murder for his role in several deadly anti-Israeli attacks.

He has since said he never supported attacks on civilians inside Israel and in recent years, has thrown his support behind peaceful resistance.

The talks between Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat and Israeli envoy Yitzhak Molcho, sponsored by Jordan and the peacemaking Quartet, were the first direct discussions between the sides in more than 15 months.

A Palestinian official had suggested the meeting, which was described as positive but produced no breakthroughs, would be followed by a second round of talks on Friday, also in Amman.

But Israeli media reported the next meeting was not expected before next week, and Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, said only that a series of meetings were expected to follow Tuesday's talks.

"Exploratory meetings will be undertaken with the participation of our brothers in Jordan up until end of the month," he said in a statement.

"Yesterday's one came in the context of these exploratory meetings.

"The Palestinian side is ready to make all possible efforts towards a resumption of negotiations," he said.

But he reiterated the Palestinian position that negotiations could not resume without a freeze on settlement construction and a framework for talks based on the lines that existed before the 1967 Six-Day War.

He urged the Israeli government "to announce a settlement freeze, including in east Jerusalem, and accept the principle of a two-state solution on the 1967 borders, to give Jordan's efforts to resume negotiations the chance they deserve."

Tuesday's meeting came in the context of efforts by the Quartet, made up of the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia, to kick-start talks that ground to a halt shortly after they began in September 2010.

The group has called on both sides to present comprehensive proposals on borders and security before January 26, with an eye to resuming direct talks shortly afterwards.

However, there was little optimism about Tuesday's meeting on either side, with the Palestinians eager to insist that the talks were not an official resumption of negotiations.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, who hosted the meeting in the Jordanian capital, tried to temper expectations.

"The two sides expressed their commitment to a two-state solution. We do not want to raise the level of expectations, but at the same time we do not want to minimise the importance of this meeting," he said on Tuesday.

"The Palestinians submitted a paper on borders and security. The Israeli side received it, promising to study it and respond," he said.