U.S. President Barack Obama discussed the resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in a phone conversation with Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu, a White House spokesman said.
"The president spoke late this morning with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu... The call... lasted 20 minutes. They discussed how best to work together to achieve comprehensive peace in the Middle East, in particularly by making full use of substantive proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinians and transitioning to direct negotiations as soon as possible," Robert Gibbs said.
U.S. mediator George Mitchell spent three days last week in the region in a bid to restart the Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, which stalled more than a year ago.
Israel repeatedly called on the Palestinian National Authority to resume peace talks immediately and without any preconditions.
Palestinians, however, cite ongoing Israeli settlement construction in the occupied territories as a main obstacle to the peace process.
U.S.-mediated Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are expected to resume this week.
WASHINGTON, May 4 (RIA Novosti)
