Israeli President Shimon Peres will visit the United States next week where he will meet President Barack Obama in the first high-level meeting between the two allies since the new US administration took office.

Peres will leave this weekend for Washington to represent Israel at the annual conference of the pro-Israeli lobby AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), his office said in a statement.

“During his stay in Washington, Peres will hold talks with US President Barack Obama,” it said, without providing a date.

The Nobel Peace laureate will become the first Israeli leader to meet Obama since he took office in January and since the February election in Israel which brought to power a right-leaning government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu.

Obama has invited Netanyahu as well as the Palestinian and Egyptian leaders to Washington next month and called for “good faith” gestures from all sides, including Israel, as he signalled he plans to make the peace process a priority.

Peres, whose position is mostly ceremonial, has coordinated the meeting with Netanyahu and the two Israeli leaders were due to meet on Wednesday to discuss the issues the president will raise with Obama, his office said.

Netanyahu is expected to meet Obama in Washington on May 18, according to Israeli officials, where the hawkish premier will present his policy on the Middle East peace process amid concern that the two allies are on a collision course.

Palestinian unity talks adjourned

Rival Palestinian groups Fateh and Hamas have adjourned their reconciliation talks in Cairo until May 16, Egyptian news agency MENA reported on Tuesday.

The delegations began talks on Monday, the fourth round of meetings aimed at agreeing a unified government for the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Egyptian mediators told the factions, which have been at loggerheads since Hamas seized Gaza in June 2007, to prepare their final positions ahead of the resumption of discussions, MENA quoted a Fateh official as saying.

"The talks achieved tangible progress," on some issues, the agency quoted Fateh official Azzam Al Ahmed as saying.

Hamas and Fateh, the main component of the Palestinian Authority which rules the West Bank, have several major disagreements.

Venezuela ties

The Venezuelan government and the Palestinian Authority formally established relations Monday with the opening of a Palestinian diplomatic mission in Caracas.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez “is the most popular leader in the Arab world because of his courage, his support for justice and for supporting the just cause of the Palestinians”, declared Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al Malki after the announcement.

His Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro said the establishment of diplomatic relations was an “act of justice” because the Venezuela government understands the Palestinian cause and considers their plight to be “paramount”. The Palestinian Authority already has diplomatic headquarters in several Latin American countries, from Mexico to Argentina, and Malki said it hopes to expand ties in the region.

Israel celebrates 61st ‘independence day’

Israel began celebrating 61 years of “statehood” at sundown on Tuesday in an abrupt and symbolic break from the commemoration of Remembrance Day.

The celebrations were officially launched with the lighting of torches at a ceremony on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem attended by hundreds of Israeli and foreign dignitaries.

Thousands of police and army forces were deployed across the country and Israel sealed off the occupied West Bank ahead of the Remembrance Day and independence day events, fearing attacks.

“Independence day” ceremonies will continue on Wednesday with air force and naval parades to the mark the 61st anniversary under the Jewish calendar of the end of the British mandate in Palestine on May 14, 1948.

Death sentence for selling land to Israelis

A Palestinian court on Tuesday sentenced to death by hanging a man convicted of selling land in the occupied West Bank to Israelis.

A court in the West Bank town of Hebron sentenced Anwat Breghit, 59, to death by hanging after finding him guilty of treason and of “selling Palestinian land to Israelis”. According to the indictment, Breghit sold property belonging to his village of Beit Omar near Hebron to Israelis from the nearby Jewish settlement of Karmei Tzur.

The sentence still requires the approval of President Mahmoud Abbas in order to be carried out.

Dozens of Palestinians have been sentenced to death since 2000 over charges of collaboration with the Israeli authorities. Only two people have seen their sentences carried out, but many others were summarily executed over similar suspicions.