WASHINGTON - Hardline Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left the White House Monday after spending an hour and forty minutes inside, emerging without US President Barack Obama.
It is not immediately clear whether Netanyahu spent the entire time in closed-door talks with Obama.
It is unusual for the US president not to publicly appear, even briefly, with a visiting foreign leader.
The tense atmosphere surrounding the talks appeared to underscore frictions between the two allies as US efforts to revive Middle East peace talks flounder.
But US efforts to revive the Middle East process floundered Tuesday with no progress reported.
"The president reaffirmed our strong commitment to Israel's security, and discussed security cooperation on a range of issues," the White House said in a brief statement.
"The president and prime minister also discussed Iran and how to move forward on Middle East peace."
The summit was announced late Sunday only after Netanyahu had arrived in Washington, forcing officials on both sides to deny the last-minute invitation reflects US frustration with the hardline premier.
Israeli prime ministers hardly ever go to Washington without meeting the US president, usually holding a high-profile press conference.
Israel's ties with the Obama administration had been strained over Netanyahu's refusal to heed the US demand for a full settlement freeze in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem ahead of a resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians.
All Jewish settlements are illegal under international law because they are built on Arab land (mainly Palestinian), illegally occupied by Israel since 1967.
Around illegal 200,000 Jewish settlers are estimated to have moved into the dozen or so Israeli settlements in Palestinian East Jerusalem.
There are about 300,000 more illegal Jewish settlers currently living in settlements the Palestinian West Bank.
The settlers adhere to radical ideologies and are extremely violent to almost-defenceless Palestinians.
The White House appeared wary not to present Monday's end-of-day meeting as a backing of Netanyahu's stance.
"The policy of the United States government for many decades has been: no more settlements, that's not something that is new (with) this administration," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said hours before the talks.
Netanyahu on Monday urged Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who last week announced he would not run for re-election in January, to immediately renew peace negotiations.
But Washington's efforts to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, a goal the US administration has made the cornerstone of its Middle East policy, have recently encountered serious setbacks.
The first crisis came when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised Netanyahu's offer of a limited easing of settlement construction as "unprecedented" during a visit to the region last week, triggering Palestinian and Arab fury.
The declaration marked a stark break from months of US support of the Palestinian demand for a total illegal Jewish settlement freeze ahead of renewed talks.
Clinton later backtracked, but her statements were widely interpreted as a U-turn by Washington which, after months of pressing Israel on settlements, appeared to back off and pile the pressure instead on the Palestinians.
The Obama-Netanyahu meeting a little more than a week after Clinton's remarks would likely reinforce that view among Palestinians and the Arab world, analysts said.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was also in Washington for talks with his US counterpart Robert Gates and US special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell, his office said.
Netanyahu earlier met lawmakers in Congress. On Wednesday, he will head to Paris to meet President Nicolas Sarkozy, Israeli officials said.
A peace activist briefly disrupted Netanyahu's speech Monday before a Jewish assembly in Washington.
"Shame on you! Peace for all people! Peace for Israel and Gaza!" shouted a woman seconds after the hardline premier began his speech before the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America.
Security agents swiftly ushered the woman out, after which Netanyahu said: "I was better received at the UN (United Nations) than here."
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