The US envoy George Mitchell met with Israeli leaders today seeking to launch immediate talks on core issues of the Middle East conflict amid deep disagreements between Washington and the Jewish state over settlements and the two-state solution.

Mr Mitchell’s visit comes days ahead of a key speech by the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which the hawkish leader is due to lay out his cabinet’s policies on the stalled peace process the US administration has been trying to restart.

The envoy met with the defence minister Ehud Barak in the morning and was due to hold talks with the Israeli president Shimon Peres and the foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman before an afternoon meeting with Mr Netanyahu, officials said.

He meets with the Palestinian leadership tomorrow in the West Bank.

Mr Mitchell said his latest trip to the region was aimed at getting Israelis and Palestinians to restart negotiations that were suspended amid the Gaza war this year.

The US president Barack Obama “has directed me to exert all efforts to try to create a circumstance in which the parties can begin immediate discussions on substantial issues,” he said in Oslo yesterday at a Palestinian donor meeting.

He also reiterated that Washington sees the creation of a Palestinian state as the “only viable political solution” to the decades-old conflict.

“And that means two states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace and security. That’s the top of our agenda and what we’re going to proceed on as vigorously as possible.”
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Mr Netanyahu has yet to publicly embrace the principle of a Palestinian state and the Israeli press has been filled with speculation in recent days that he may finally do so in the speech he is due to give on Sunday.

Another major bone of contention that has driven a rift between the US and Israel is the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which the international community considers illegal.

Mr Obama’s administration has repeatedly called for a complete halt to all settlement activity, including so-called natural growth construction to accommodate population increases.

Mr Netanyahu’s largely right-wing government vigorously opposes such a move and would likely collapse if the premier caves in to Washington’s demands, analysts here say.

Tensions between the close allies have jumped to levels unseen in nearly two decades amid Mr Obama’s push to pursue with the moribund peace process.

The efforts by the new US president have raised fears in Israel that Washington may ease its support as it seeks to improve American relations with the Muslim world.

During a heralded speech in Cairo last week, Mr Obama reiterated that Washington’s bond with Israel was “unbreakable,” but called the situation of the Palestinians “intolerable,” said the two-state solution was the only way to resolve the conflict, and called for a stop to settlements.