Defense Minister Ehud Barak will meet US Middle East envoy George Mitchell next week for talks aimed at healing a rift over Jewish settlements in the West Bank, a top official said on Friday.
Barak and Mitchell, who met earlier this week in New York for what were branded "constructive" talks, will meet again on Monday in London, the official told AFP.
The talks will again focus on efforts to kickstart dormant Middle East peace talks amid an unusually public spat between the two close allies after repeated US demands for a halt to all settlement activity in the West Bank.
Barak earlier this week sought to downplay disagreements with Washington over settlement expansion, calling it "only one component" in the peace process.
He nevertheless acknowledged that differences on the settlements issue remained between Israel and its most important ally.
Israel's right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not allow the building of new settlements but will also not halt the "natural growth" of existing settlements that Israel intends to keep in any peace deal.
The presence of upwards of 280,000 Israelis in more than 100 settlements scattered across the West Bank has long been seen as a major obstacle to peace talks and to the creation of a viable Palestinian state.
The Palestinians have refused to meet Netanyahu while settlement activity continues, and the international community -- which views all settlements as illegal -- has repeatedly called for a complete freeze.
Under a 2003 international peace roadmap, to which Israel committed itself, the Jewish state is required to halt all settlement activity, including natural growth, and to remove settlement outposts erected after March 2001.
