The first meeting of the Palestinian and Israeli negotiation teams will be held in New York on Thursday, sources said.

According to the Hebrew Israeli daily paper Ma’ariv, heading the Israeli team will be aide to the Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Mulkho. Heading the Palestinian team is Chief Negotiator for the Palestine Liberation Organization Dr Saeb Erekat.

The two teams will sit and work out a platform for higher level meetings between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israeli papers quoted a sources close to Netanyahu saying talks would likely begin next month.

Palestinian unity talks are also set to begin in October.

The meetings follow the first sit down between Abbas and Netanyahu, who met along with US President Barack Obama on Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York. The meeting came in spite of a failure to secure an Israeli freeze on settlement construction, set as a condition to show seriousness of Israeli leaders to achieve peace. US Special Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell was dispatched to the region to secure the settlement freeze, but was unable to do so. Obama personally requested the leaders sit down and talk.