Palestinian President Abbas holds rare talks with Israeli minister

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has held his first official meeting with a senior Israeli in more than a decade.

He told Mr Abbas that Israel would seek to strengthen the Palestinian economy.

US President Joe Biden wants both sides to repair relations that have deteriorated since the last round of direct peace talks collapsed in 2014.

At the White House on Friday, he urged Israel's new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to take "steps to improve the lives of Palestinians and support greater economic opportunities for them".

He also reaffirmed his view that a negotiated two-state solution was the only viable path to achieving a lasting resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

An Israeli government source stressed that Sunday's meeting was approved by Mr Bennett, and that Mr Gantz had not discussed peace talks with Mr Abbas.

"There is no diplomatic process with the Palestinians, nor will there be one," the source told the BBC.

Such a meeting marks a shift in formal relations.

Israel's new government is broad and includes left-wing and Arab parties likely to see building such contact as important.

But American pressure is perhaps the bigger factor. The Biden team wants a thaw in ties between Israel and the internationally-backed Palestinian leadership, which is in the middle of a financial crisis and which was shunned by Donald Trump's administration.

Palestinian officials put the emphasis on economic measures when describing the meeting, which some Palestinians will be uneasy about.

For Israel's nationalist Prime Minister Naftali Bennett there is also a dilemma, with such contacts unlikely to do much for his right-wing base.

His office is portraying it as all about security, adding that there is not and will not be a diplomatic process with the Palestinians.

The Palestinian Authority severed ties with Israel last year over then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to annex a large part of the West Bank, which the Palestinians want for a future independent state, along with the Gaza Strip.

Ties were restored in November after the annexation plan was put on hold, and this June Mr Netanyahu was succeeded by Mr Bennett, a right-wing nationalist who formed a governing coalition with left-wing, centrist, Arab and other right-wing parties.