Summit raises hopes for new Mideast peace talks

Together understanding Summit raises hopes for new Mideast peace talks

ELEANOR HALL: The US president Barack Obama said today that he hopes that direct talks between the Israelis and Palestinians will begin by September this year.

Mr Obama made the comments after a meeting in the Oval Office with Benjamin Netanyahu, a meeting where the Israel prime minister received a much warmer reception than during his visit in March.

But while they were there to talk peace, the two leaders first tried to make it clear that their relationship is back on track, as Washington correspondent Kim Landers reports.

KIM LANDERS: The two leaders sat close together in the Oval Office, chatting, smiling and staging a long, tight handshake for the cameras.

It's the first meeting between US president Barack Obama and Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu since their tense behind closed doors encounter in March.

It's also their first meeting since Israel's deadly raid on an aid flotilla headed for Gaza. Both men said their talks had been excellent and president Obama said the special bond between the US and Israel is unbreakable.

BARACK OBAMA: I believe that prime minister Netanyahu wants peace. I think he's willing to take risks for peace.

KIM LANDERS: While the US media has been portraying this visit as a fence mending effort, president Barack Obama certainly was at pains to sing the praises of Benjamin Netanyahu.

BARACK OBAMA: I know the press, both in Israel and stateside enjoys, you know, seeing if there's news there. But the fact of the matter is that I've trusted prime minister Netanyahu since I met him before I was elected president and have said so both publicly and privately.

KIM LANDERS: The Israeli prime minister also did his best to play down notions of a rift between the US and Israel.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: The reports about the demise of the special US-Israel relations, ah relationship, aren't just premature they're just flat wrong.

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