Tel Aviv  - United States envoy George Mitchell met with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday in Tel Aviv, the first such meeting since the hardline Israeli government took office on March 31.

Mitchell also held talks with opposition leader Tzipi Livni, with whom he stressed US support for a two-state solution to the Middle Conflict, saying a sustainable peace in the Middle East was in US national interests.

Earlier Thursday, Israel's ultra-nationalist foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman told the envoy of US President Barack Obama that a different approach was needed toward the Middle East conflict, because that of past Israeli governments had failed.

The Netanyahu government has thus far declined to openly commit to such a two-state solution, which envisages a Palestinian state living in peace along side Israel.

"New ideas" must be found, because the path taken by previous governments did not lead to "good places, to say the least," Lieberman told Mitchell.

"We spoke about really close cooperation and we are looking forward to the next meeting and to some really deep dialogue," Lieberman told reporters after the meeting.

Despite the potential for tension after Lieberman used his inauguration speech to flatly declare the so-called Annapolis process null and void, the talks were held in a "very good" atmosphere, his office insisted.

Under US sponsorship, the previous Israeli government of Ehud Olmert had revived intense peace negotiations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at a November 2007 summit in Annapolis, Maryland.

At the summit, the sides committed to negotiate on all of the core issues of their mutual conflict and strive to reach a final peace deal within one year, but talks entered a hiatus late last year, as Israel began an election period, and have not restarted.

Lieberman has said Israel is committed only to the internationally-sponsored, 2003 "road map," which eventually also calls for a two-state solution. He vowed he would not agree to negotiations on a final peace deal, before all of the road map's preliminary clauses are implemented. These call on the Palestinians to act against militants - and on Israel to freeze settlement construction and uproot outposts in the occupied West Bank.

Meeting Israeli President Shimon Peres earlier in the morning, Mitchell called the US commitment to Israel's security "absolute," but also again reiterated the that administration would act toward a two-state solution.

Peres said that despite the pessimism currently prevailing in the region, "no door has been closed," a statement from his office said. "We have no time to waste," he added.

Netanyahu's office has said his government is still undergoing a policy review, which will take several more weeks to complete. So far, Netanyahu, of the hardline, but mainstream Likud, has said in his inauguration address that he has no interest in ruling over the Palestinians and will conduct "continuous" peace negotiations with them.

But he would not openly commit to the establishment of a fully sovereign Palestinian state.

Heading into the meeting in Jerusalem, the outspoken and controversial Lieberman, of the ultra-nationalist Israel Beiteinu coalition party, would not comment on Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit's comments to a Russian television station that he would not be welcome in Egypt.

Abul Gheit said Wednesday that Cairo will have working relations with Israel, but not with Lieberman, who has angered Egypt with a series of blunt statements, including that President Hosny Mubarak should "go to hell" if he continued to refuse to visit Israel.

On Friday, the Obama envoy is expected to travel to the West Bank for talks with President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian officials.

Mitchell met Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak in Tel Aviv shortly after his arrival Wednesday evening from North Africa.

The Israeli Yediot Ahronot daily, quoting a conversation between a Jewish leader and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, reported Thursday that Obama wants to condition US support of Israel regarding Iran on the removal of Jewish settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank.

According to Yediot, Emanuel told the local Jewish leader that Israel and the Palestinians will sign a final peace deal based on the two-state solution within the next four years, no matter what.

The daily added that Netanyahu had wanted to meet Obama in early May, when he was planning to travel to Washington for the annual AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) conference, but was told by the White House the president would not be in town.

It quoted US administration officials as saying that Obama planned to break the tradition of the previous administration of George W Bush, who would host the previous Israeli prime ministers many times a year, often on short notice.

Netanyahu's office said he is now likely to meet Obama late next month. (dpa)