Obama, Netanyahu and Abbas meet in New York,
Obama, Netanyahu and Abbas meet in New York,Flash 90

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday lent his weight to a fresh American initiative to hammer out a Middle East peace deal, meeting with Israeli and Palestinian Authority negotiators.

Obama, who travelled to Israel in March for his first visit to the region as president, met with Israeli Justice Minister and chief negotiator Tzipi Livni and her Palestinian Authoirty counterpart Saed Erakat, AFP reported.

It was not immediately clear of US Secretary of State John Kerry, who over six months of grueling shuttle diplomacy has cajoled the two sides back the negotiating table after a 3-year hiatus, was also attending.

Earlier Tuesday, Livni and Erakat met at the State Department for bilateraltalks as moves to push the peace negotiations forward gather steam.

Kerry had broken the ice late Monday by hosting an iftar dinner at which Livni and Erakat sat side-by-side to break bread at the end of the Muslim day of fasting for Ramadan.

Livni said the mood at the dinner, held in sumptuous rooms in the State Department, had been "positive."

"All issues are on the table, but we decided that what was said will stayin the negotiating room and will not go outside," she told Israeli public
radio.

Both she and Erakat left at the end of the 90-minute feast refusing toanswer reporters' questions.

Livni said the talks were resuming "not just in response to US pressure but because it's in the interest of both parties."

However, she said that disagreements within Israel's coalition government could pose an obstacle to any deal.

A State Department official said the Monday night talks had been "constructive and productive," adding that the two sides "engaged in good faith and with seriousness of purpose."

Israel and the Palestinian Authority remain deeply divided over so-called "finalstatus issues" - including the fate of Jerusalem, claimed by both as acapital, the so-called "right of return" for Arab refugees, and the borders of anyfuture "Palestinian state."

Kerry was later Tuesday to host a three-way meeting at the State Department before making a statement to reporters.

Officials have said the opening talks are meant to set out procedures andan agenda for going forward, and will not go into the thorny details of suchissues as borders and refugees.

Kerry was flanked at the iftar dinner by seasoned diplomat Martin Indyk,whom he named Monday as the US special envoy to the talks, and who isexpected  to take over the day-to-day work of keeping them on track.

The choice of Indyk is a mediator in talks has been severely criticized by Israeli groups and politicians, due to his position as co-chairman of the far-left "New Israel Fund."

Obama's last foray into the intractable Arab-Israeli conflict ended infailure, when talks launched in September 2010 collapsed despite a "freeze" on building in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, commissioned by the Israeli government in the hope of coaxing the PA to the negotiating table.

But he has welcomed the start of new talks as a "promising step" forward,and promised US support as the two sides mull the "hard choices" facing them.

"The most difficult work of these negotiations is ahead, and I am hopeful that both the Israeli and Palestinians will approach these talks in good faith," Obama said Monday.

Kerry also warned on Monday that "many difficult choices lie ahead for thenegotiators and for the leaders as we seek reasonable compromises on tough,complicated, emotional and symbolic issues."

The two sides have agreed to continue talking for at least nine months, aState Department official said, cautioning though that this was not a deadline.

In a sign of the continued hostilities, a rocket fired from the Hamas-controlled Gaza region hit southern Israel early Tuesday, but caused no casualties.

The Islamist terrorist group is deeply opposed to the resumed talks, but has observed an informal truce with Israel since the latter's counterterrorism operation in November.