Israeli leader meets Obama

PRESIDENT Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched their first White House talks grappling with rare US-Israeli differences over Middle East peacemaking and how to deal with Iran.

Obama planned to press the Israeli leader to endorse Palestinian statehood and freeze Jewish settlement expansion on occupied land.

But Netanyahu, who heads a new right-leaning government that has balked so far at embracing a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict, appeared unlikely to comply.