Washington - President Barack Obama met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late Monday as the US struggles to revive stalled Middle East peace talks. "The president reaffirmed our strong commitment to Israel's security, and discussed security cooperation on a range of issues ... Iran and how to move forward on Middle East peace," a White House statement released after the closed-door meeting said.
Obama has seen his efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian talks founder. He and Netanyahu have also sharply differed over settlements in a rare public dispute between US and Israeli leaders.
Earlier in the day, Netanyahu said he was committed to peace negotiations with the Palestinians without preconditions and that he wanted to complete an accord "soon."
Speaking to a gathering of the North American Jewish federations, Netanyahu said the effort to achieve peace must be intensified.
"There's no time to waste," he said. "We need to move towards peace with a sense of urgency and a sense of purpose."
"My goal is not to have endless negotiations. My goal is not negotiations for the sake of negotiations," he said. "My goal is to achieve a permanent peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians, and soon."
Netanyahu has rebuffed Obama's calls for a complete freeze on settlement activity, including the expansion of current ones.
