Abbas calls Israel's Netanyahu, urges peace moves

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday telephoned Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time since he became Israel's prime minister and said they should both advance peace efforts, Israeli officials said.

Abbas extended holiday greetings for the Jewish Passover festival, adding that "both sides needed to work for peace", a statement from the Israeli prime minister's office said.

Netanyahu, whose right-leaning government took office on March 31, said "he intended to resume" talks and cooperation with the Palestinians for the sake of promoting peace, the statement said.

Israeli officials said it was the first contact between the two leaders since Netanyahu became prime minister for the second time. He last held the post from 1996 to 1999.

Netanyahu "recalled their past cooperation and conversations, and how he intended to resume this in the future in order to advance peace", said the statement.

Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Friday Abbas had made peace talks with Netanyahu's cabinet conditional on it committing to U.S.-brokered understandings reached at a 2007 Annapolis summit, and freezing Jewish settlement growth.

Erekat's remarks followed comments last week by far-right Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman that the statehood talks launched at Annapolis were no longer valid.

Netanyahu himself has been more vague, saying his priority was to focus on economic and security issues instead of negotiating core issues such as statehood borders and the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.

Netanyahu's stance could put him on a collision course with the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, who called this week for a Palestinian state alongside Israel as outlined in Annapolis, and said both sides needed to make compromises.

(For blogs and links on Israeli politics and other Israeli and Palestinian news, go to blogs.reuters.com/axismundi)