Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived for tense White House talks Tuesday warning that US demands on freezing Jewish settlement projects could delay Middle East peace talks for a year.
The Israeli leader, looking somber, climbed out of his limousine and entered the West Wing for the private dinner with Obama just off the Oval Office. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was also seen walking into the White House.
Earlier, Netanyahu had shown no sign of caving in to US demands to halt the construction of new settler homes in east Jerusalem, which some analysts have described as the worst row between the allies for years.
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"If the Americans support the unreasonable demands made by the Palestinians regarding a freeze on settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, the peace process risks being blocked for a year," Netanyahu said.
"Relations between Israel and the United States should not be hostage to differences between the two countries over the peace process with the Palestinians," he was quoted as saying by Israeli media.
Netanyahu declared late Monday in a passionate speech to the powerful US-Israel lobby AIPAC that "Jerusalem is not a settlement," spelling out an apparent message of no compromise towards Obama.
The United States has warned that building more Jewish settler homes in disputed east Jerusalem directly undermines its credibility as a mediator and efforts to get "proximity" talks started between Israel and the Palestinians.
Underling the delicate nature of the task Obama and Netanyahu face in repairing the US-Israel rift, they will not even hold a photo opportunity, let alone speak to reporters.
Netanyahu says he is simply following the policies of all Israeli governments since 1967, when Israel won a war with its Arab neighbors and seized east Jerusalem, which it later annexed in a move not recognized by any major world power.
Israel claims all Jerusalem as its eternal capital. The Palestinians want to make the predominantly Arab eastern sector of the city the future seat of their state.
On Monday, Netanyahu had dinner with Vice President Joe Biden, who reacted angrily when Israel announced the construction of 1,600 new settler homes in east Jerusalem just as he visited the country two weeks ago.
The White House described the talks in a statement written in spare language hinting at the depths of disagreement: "They had a productive, candid discussion on the full range of issues in the bilateral relationship."
Deepening the sense of crisis, the Palestinians warned Netanyahu's position threatened to destroy hopes for serious peace negotiations.
"What Netanyahu said does not help American efforts and will not serve the efforts of the American administration to return the two sides to indirect negotiations," Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said.
Netanyahu's visit unfolded as his government was embroiled in another row, this time with Britain, over the use of fake British passports by an Israeli hit squad blamed for killing Hamas commander Mahmud al-Mabhuh in Dubai.
Britain ordered the expulsion of an Israeli diplomat over the affair. Israel, which has denied its spy agency Mossad was to blame, said it was disappointed at the decision.
Netanyahu was also active on Capitol Hill, as Israel's staunch allies in the US Congress stepped up pressure on Obama to back off.
Eric Cantor, the number two Republican in the House of Representatives, told AFP Obama should show he was "serious" about ending the row with Israel by holding a joint press availability at the White House.
Cantor was among lawmakers who met with Netanyahu a few hours before his White House stop.
Despite her criticism of settlements, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told AIPAC Monday that US support for Israel's security is "rock solid, unwavering, enduring and forever."
Netanyahu's AIPAC speech offered little obvious room for concessions.
Michelle Dunne, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Netanyahu's speech "wasn't conciliatory at all."
US and Israeli differences over Jerusalem have "been swept for many, many years under the rug. They're not sweeping it under the rug anymore," she said.
Haim Malka of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said Obama's meeting with Netanyahu indicated that some understanding had been reached over the parameters of Israeli-Palestinian talks.
But he noted that the "exact parameters of that understanding remain unclear at the moment."
