U.S. sets new Israel meeting, presses Arabs to help

By Alastair Macdonald and Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's envoy will hold a second meeting in a week with Israel's defense minister, an Israeli official said on Friday, announcing talks on Monday likely to focus again on a dispute over settlements.

A senior U.S. official confirmed to Reuters that Washington is asking Arab governments whether they might ease sanctions on Israel if it freezes Jewish settlement on Palestinian territory, a move that could lead to regional peace negotiations.

The U.S. State Department had no immediate comment.

But Arab leaders have so far been cool, Western diplomats said, to suggestions they might open their airspace to Israeli airliners, allow roaming calls by Israeli cellphones or let in tourists whose passports show they have also visited Israel.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak will meet Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell in London on Monday, six days after their meeting in New York on Tuesday, an Israeli official said.

No details on the agenda were immediately available. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has, since taking office four months ago, been resisting U.S. pressure to halt expansion of West Bank settlements to unblock peace talks with Palestinians.

After last meeting Mitchell, Barak made a link between a settlement freeze and progress on Arab states "normalizing" relations with Israel, which is isolated by its neighbors.

On Friday, a senior U.S. official told Reuters: "We are trying to get the Arab states, in the context of meaningful action by the Israelis, to take steps toward normalization."