Hillary Clinton to meet Israel PM Netanyahu in US next week

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said on Thursday she plans to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the United States next week.                                          

"I do intend to see Prime Minister Netanyahu when he is in the United States next week," Clinton told reporters at a news conference with Prime Minister John Key of New Zealand, the second-to-last stop on her two-week Asia-Pacific tour. 

Direct talks between Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas began on Sept 2 in Washington but broke down several weeks later when a 10-month partial Israeli freeze on settlement building in the West Bank expired.  

Netanyahu has resisted US, Palestinian and international calls to impose a new building moratorium on settlements in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in a 1967 war.

Palestinian officials have accused Netanyahu of destroying prospects for peace by allowing settlement building to continue on land that Palestinians want for a future state. 

"We are working on a non-stop basis with our Israeli and Palestinian friends to design a way forward," Clinton said, saying she believed Netanyahu and Abbas were committed to pursuing a two-state solution to the six-decade conflict.                                           

"I am very involved in finding the way forward and I think that we will be able to do so," she added.