Washington  - The United States will be looking to engage all sides in a bid to revive the Middle East peace process, as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meets with US President Barack Obama Thursday at the White House.

Coming after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks with Obama earlier this month in Washington, the visit by Abbas is part of a wider effort to build support across the region, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said.

"We are making a very concerted effort. We have a well thought-out approach that we are pursuing" to kick-start the stalled negotiations, Clinton said after a meeting Wednesday with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit.

Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak had been scheduled to travel Tuesday to Washington but cancelled last week after the death of his grandson.

The administration has spent Obama's first four months in office developing its own proposals for how to resolve the stalemate between the Israelis and Palestinians. Obama travels next week to Egypt and Saudi Arabia and will reportedly lay out his plans during a major speech in Cairo.

"But, ultimately, this is up to the two parties. Israel and the Palestinians have to decide that they will take a commitment toward a resolution of their outstanding concerns," said Clinton, who also held talks Wednesday evening with Abbas. "The international community, led by the United States, will be very supportive of that."

Palestinians expressed doubt Wednesday that Abbas' visit would result in pressure on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories. A top aide to the Palestinian leader said he would tell Obama that Palestinians wanted to see deeds, rather than merely words.

Abbas has said that peace talks, halted when Israel entered an election period late last year, will not resume until Israel openly accepts the two-state solution and stops its settlement activities in the occupied West Bank.

Obama pressed Netanyahu on both issues during their meeting earlier this month.

"President Obama and I are fully committed to a comprehensive peace in the Middle East, to a two-state solution," Clinton said. The US would also continue to press Israel to "cease" settlement activity.

But Abbas is travelling to Washington facing his own political turmoil after his Fatah movement and rival Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, failed last week to agree on forming a unity government.

Netanyahu, speaking before the Israeli Knesset on Wednesday, demanded concessions by both Palestinians and Arab states in return for any Israeli steps toward peace.

He urged Arab states to take steps toward establishing ties with Israel, a move he argued would help boost the peace process.

Netanyahu, who took office eight weeks ago following February 10 elections in which the right-wing bloc of parties headed by his Likud won a majority of mandates, has explicitly neither accepted or rejected the two-state solution.

Netanyahu reiterated that he was committed to interim peace agreements signed by previous governments. "We expect others to respect their obligations as well," he said. "We want an end to the conflict, and we also want reciprocity."

"We are willing to take - and we will take - concrete steps toward peace with the Palestinians. We expect also the Palestinians to take such concrete steps for their part," he told the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, which convened to deliberate economic policy.

Netanyahu is defying Obama on the question of settlements. While Israel will not build any new settlements in the West Bank, it will continue to build on existing ones in order to accommodate population expansion, so-called "natural growth."

He did promise to dismantle unauthorized settlement outposts.

Clinton said the US administration "wants to see a stop to settlements - not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions."

"We think it is in the best interests of the effort that we are engaged in, that settlement expansion cease," she said. (dpa)