Israel should freeze settlement activity while Palestinians carry out long-delayed security and administrative reforms to help revive the Middle East peace process, a senior UN official said on Thursday. Election of a new Palestinian president has created new hope for progress in resolving the Middle East crisis, but "both parties have important steps to take," Kieran Prendergast, the undersecretary-general for political affairs, told the UN Security Council. The road map to peace set out by the "quartet" of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations requires both sides to start out taking simultaneous steps. The Israelis are to freeze settlement activity and withdraw their troops from occupied areas, while the Palestinian Authority is to reform its security services and crack down on militants attacking Israelis. President-elect Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday in the West Bank town of Ramallah that Palestinians intended to start carrying out their security commitments under the road map.