Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for a meeting in New York this week with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to relaunch "direct negotiations".
The call came as Abbas, already in New York for the annual UN General Assembly, prepared to submit on Friday a request for membership in the world body in a move staunchly opposed by Israel and the United States.
"The prime minister is interested in a meeting with the president of the Palestinian Authority in New York," Netanyahu's office said in a statement on Monday.
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"I call on the president of the Palestinian Authority to open up direct negotiations in New York and that they resume in Jerusalem and in Ramallah," the West Bank headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, it said.
Netanyahu, who flies to New York on Tuesday, has said the UN bid is doomed to fail and the Palestinians would ultimately seek renewed talks.
"Their attempt to be accepted as a member of the United Nations will fail," Netanyahu said on Sunday. "That attempt will fail, since it has to pass through the Security Council."
Israel and the United States insist that only direct negotiations can resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Netanyahu is due to hold talks on Wednesday with US President Barack Obama and will address the General Assembly on Friday, the day Abbas has said he will submit his request for Palestinian membership in the world body.
"President Abbas informed the (UN) secretary-general of his intention to submit to the secretary-general on Friday an
application for membership in the United Nations," UN chief Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
Washington, Israel's main ally, has already announced it will use its veto to block the Palestinian bid in the Security Council.
"We remain where we were on the inadvisability of unilateral actions that will bring the Palestinians no closer to the statehood they seek," White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Monday.
"We generally, as a rule, support the actions that move the parties closer together and do not support the things that move them further apart."
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