Washington: US President Barack Obama called on Israel to extend a freeze on colonies as he pledged a never-say-die approach to the new Middle East peace talks, calling the effort "a risk worth taking".
Saying last week's launch of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations "exceeded lots of people's expectations," Obama looked to the September 26 expiration of the partial freeze on new Jewish housing in the West Bank as a key hurdle.
"A major bone of contention during the course of this month is going to be the potential lapse of the colony moratorium," Obama told a White House press conference.
He said he had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House last week that, "given so far the talks are moving forward in a constructive way, it makes sense to extend that moratorium."
Obama said he also told Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas - who was in Washington last week for the negotiations launched by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - to give Netanyahu room to maneuver.
He urged Abbas to "show the Israeli public that you are serious and constructive in these talks so that the politics for prime minister Netanyahu, if he were to extend the colony moratorium, would be a little bit easier."
Israeli officials have indicated that they will not extend the freeze as is, but the Palestinians have warned that they would break off the new talks if colony building continues on occupied land.
Obama sounded cautiously optimistic as Clinton was due in Egypt and Israel next week for round two of the first direct talks to be held since December 2008 when Israel launched a three-week war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
"I remain hopeful but this is going to be tough," Obama said.
The president said Netanyahu and Abbas came to the White House talks "with a sense of purpose and seriousness and cordiality that frankly exceeded lots of people's expectations."
He recalled that the two leaders last week affirmed the goal of creating two states living side-by-side and agreed to hold negotiations roughly every two weeks.
But he added: "There are enormous hurdles between now and our end point, and they're going to be a whole bunch of folks in the region who want to undermine these negotiations."
