In an unusually sharp rebuke to Israel's closest ally, Netanyahu insisted Israel would never pull back to its 1967 borders - which would mean big concessions of occupied land - that Obama had said should be the basis for negotiations on creating a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu insisted that Israel was willing to make compromises for peace, but made clear he had major differences with Washington on how to advance the long-stalled peace process.

Netanyahu's resistance raises the question of how hard Obama will push for concessions he is unlikely to get, and whether the vision the US leader laid out on Thursday to resolve the decades-old conflict will ever get off the ground.

Despite assurances of friendship by both leaders, this week's events also appeared to herald tense months ahead for US-Israeli relations, even as the Arab world goes through political turmoil and Palestinians prepare a unilateral bid this fall to seek UN General Assembly recognition for statehood.