In the first direct talks in 20 months, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas will meet face-to-face in the US capital on September 2 with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Those talks will come after Netanyahu and Abbas meet separately the day before with US President Barack Obama, who has made Arab-Israeli peace a priority for his administration, Clinton told reporters.

Obama will also meet separately on September 1 with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah II, Arab mediators whose states have signed peace treaties with Israel and who, Clinton said, play a ‘critical role’.

Backed by a diplomatic quartet of world powers, the parties will "relaunch direct negotiations to resolve all final status issues, which we believe can be completed within one year," Clinton announced at the State Department.

She was referring to security for Israel, borders of a future Palestinian state, the future of Palestinian refugees, and the fate of Jerusalem, which both sides claim as their capital. Clinton said she and Obama, as well as Netanyahu and Abbas, shared "the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security."

AFP