“One of the reasons for these early interventions is to get right at the issue of mistrust,” he said, referring to his flurry of meetings.

“I am convinced that we can break that down,” he said. “This process should not be rushed, subject to some sort of external time limit or artificial process, because it’s too important.”

Mr. Kerry has yet to elaborate on how he would strengthen the economy of the Palestinians. But the basic idea is to make the area more economically viable in the hope of giving the Palestinian leaders more of a stake in a revived peace process and providing Israel with a credible negotiating partner.

A Palestinian official, who asked not to be identified because he was discussing private diplomatic discussions, said the Palestinians had presented a paper to President Obama last month detailing several economic projects that the official said were “important for building capacity” for a future Palestinian state.

The proposed projects were mainly in the roughly 60 percent of the West Bank known as Area C, where Israel maintains full security and civilian control under the terms of the Oslo Accords, the 1990s agreements between Israel and the Palestinians. One example of the kind of project the Palestinians have in mind is a tourism development along the northern shore of the Dead Sea, the official said.

Any Palestinian initiatives in Area C, however, have to be coordinated with Israel. And Palestinians and international experts have long argued that limits on Palestinian economic activity there have stymied Palestinian growth.

The Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported that in his meeting with Mr. Abbas, Mr. Kerry said that if the Palestinians returned to the negotiations they would receive several benefits, including the transfer of more land to the control of the Palestinian Authority, enabling construction in Area C.