Barack 'to host Israel-Palestinian talks at UN'

US President Barack Obama is expected to host a meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders at the United Nations later this month.

Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, said that a three-way summit with Mr Obama moderating between Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas could lead to the resumption of the full peace process.

The meeting is expected to take place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, which begins on Sept 23.

"I think they will meet by the end of September. President Obama will chair it, and I think that at least there is a chance that they will decide they are going to reopen negotiations," Mr Peres said in an interview with Fox News.

He added that Hamas representatives would not be included in the talks.

Any resulting full peace talks would be allowed to run for two years.

Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, has held firm that talks cannot be renewed until Israel agrees to freeze construction of its settlements in the West Bank, as per the terms agreed under the 2003 "road map" backed by the international community. More