Barack Obama urges Mid-East leaders to take opportunity

US President Barack Obama has urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders not to let the chance of a permanent peace deal "slip away".

"This moment of opportunity may not soon come again," he said, pledging US support for the new negotiations.

Mr Obama spoke the day before a new round of direct talks between Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas was due to begin.

Earlier, he condemned the "senseless slaughter" of four Israeli settlers.

They were shot dead by gunmen near the West Bank city of Hebron on Tuesday, with the armed wing of Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and opposes peace talks with Israel, saying it had carried out the attack.

And in another attack, two Israelis were shot and wounded on Wednesday in the West Bank at Rimonim Junction, near the Jewish settlement of Kochav Hashahar and east of the city of Ramallah.

The victims were a woman and a man, Israeli officials said, adding that the man was in a serious condition in hospital. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld blamed Palestinian militants for the attack.
'Partners in peace'

Mr Obama spoke at the White House on Wednesday evening after meetings with Mr Netanyahu, Mr Abbas, Jordan's King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

His remarks came on the eve of the first direct negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in 20 months, which he said were "intended to resolve all final status issues".

In remarks ahead of a Wednesday evening dinner with the Arab leaders, Mr Netanyahu described Mr Abbas as a "partner in peace", and said he would not allow the latest attacks to "block our path to peace".

Speaking next, Mr Abbas condemned attacks on Israelis and urged an end to bloodshed. He also called for a freeze in Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank, and said it was time to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land that began in 1967.

Mr Mubarak called Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories "contrary to international law".

King Abdullah said the group needed Mr Obama's "support as a mediator, honest broker and a partner".

"If hopes are disappointed again, the price of failure will be too high for all," he said.

Mr Obama said the goal of the talks, which are expected to last a year, was a permanent settlement that ended the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 and resulted in an independent, democratic Palestinian state existing peacefully beside Israel.

He said the US could not impose peace on the two parties, and that the US could not want peace more than them.

And he praised Mr Abbas and Mr Netanyahu as leaders "who I believe want peace".

Settlement freeze

Earlier, Mr Obama said Wednesday's initial meetings were "very productive".

But disagreement over Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank has also threatened to cast a pall over the talks.

The Israelis have said they will not renew a partial freeze on building homes for Jewish settlers when it expires towards the end of this month, but the Palestinians say that without a freeze they will walk away from the talks.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to hold discussions with the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams.

Mr Netanyahu and Mr Abbas are to then meet for the first face-to-face talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders since late 2008.

US officials said they wanted to at least get agreement from the two sides to meet again, possibly in the second week of September.

Another meeting between Mr Obama, Mr Abbas and Mr Netanyahu could be held during the UN General Assembly at the end of the month.