Obama opens long-shot talks on Mideast peace

By ROBERT BURNS AP National Security Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama is opening a new round of Mideast peacemaking, bringing Israeli and Palestinian leaders together for talks aimed at forging agreement within one year on a two-state solution: a sovereign Palestine and a secure Israel.

Expectations were low as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived Tuesday in Washington for preparatory talks with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Clinton has been spending months coaxing the parties back to the bargaining table.

The talks will be the first face-to-face sessions between the Israelis and Palestinians since December 2008. The two sides are far apart on all key issues, so major progress in the early going is seen as unlikely.