"The leaders look forward to discussing the full range of issues of mutual interest to the United States and Israel," the White House said in a statement.

The announcement came as Netanyahu visits Britain and France this week to counter Palestinian plans to seek United Nations recognition of their statehood, as peace talks remain mired in a stalemate over the issue of Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land.

Netanyahu is also telling his allies he cannot negotiate with the Palestinians under a reconciliation deal signed Tuesday between warring government factions Hamas and Fatah.

Negotiations between the two sides have been on hold since they were relaunched in Washington in late September, when a 10-month, partial Israeli settlement freeze expired and Netanyahu refused to renew it, allowing new housing developments to begin.

Obama subsequently told the UN General Assembly that the Israelis and Palestinians could clinch an agreement within a year -- by September 2011 -- and an "independent, sovereign state of Palestine, living in peace with Israel" could rise.

There have been few US initiatives since.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe earlier said France may turn a donors' conference on a future Palestinian state set for June into a political meeting to relaunch the on-and-off peace process.

"How much will we be able to get him to evolve? You know the man, his character, his determination," Juppe said of Netanyahu, playing down the chances of a rapid breakthrough in the peace process.

"Our idea is to try a last resort initiative, so that, in the month of September, when the question of recognizing (a Palestinian state) is raised, we can say we tried everything."

The Palestinian accord will see the two factions work together to build a transitional government of independent candidates, while leaving the issue of peace negotiations in the hands of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, headed by president Mahmud Abbas.

Netanyahu has criticized it as a blow to peace.

The Palestinians have insisted they will not talk while Israel builds on land they want for a future state, and Israel has attracted fierce international criticism for its settlement policy.

earlier related report
US top court to hear Jerusalem passport dispute
Washington (AFP) May 2, 2011 - The US Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear an appeal over whether an American born in Jerusalem can list Israel as his place of birth in his passport.

Ari and Naomi Zivotofsky filed a lawsuit in 2004 after State Department officials refused to list Israel as their son Menachem's birthplace, citing long-standing US policy to avoid any official statement on the thorny issue of Jerusalem's status, a key concern in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

Instead, the birth certificate indicates the boy was born in Jerusalem in 2002.

If Menachem had been born in Tel Aviv or other Israeli cities, his passport would indicate Israel as his place of birth. Under usual practices, US authorities list a country, not a city, as a place of birth.

While Israel has declared Jerusalem its capital, the United States has joined a majority of nations in refraining from recognizing that status for the holy city that Palestinians want as the capital of their future state.

Menachem was born shortly after then president George W. Bush signed a lengthy foreign affairs bill with a measure that "directs the secretary of state to identify a United States citizen born in Jerusalem upon the citizen's request, as born in 'Israel' on a passport or a consular report of birth abroad."

But in ratifying the treaty, Bush also cautioned that the directive "impermissibly interferes" with the president's authority to direct and formulate US foreign policy.

In urging the court to decline to take up the case, the State Department noted that "the status of Jerusalem is one of the most sensitive and long-standing disputes in the Arab-Israeli conflict."

Any US action to unilaterally recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital "would critically compromise the ability of the United States to work with Israelis, Palestinians and others in the region to further the peace process, to bring an end to violence in Israel and the occupied territories and to achieve progress in the Roadmap" for peace, it added.

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