Netanyahu cites reciprocity on eve of Abbas U.S. trip

By Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on the eve of a White House visit by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that Palestinians must also be pressed to meet commitments under a U.S.-backed peace plan.

Pledging to honour Israel's international agreements, which include a 2003 peace "road map" with the Palestinians, Netanyahu said: "We want an end to the conflict and we want reciprocity in the demands made of both sides, and in carrying them out."

After meeting Netanyahu on May 18, Obama reaffirmed a main hallmark of the road map -- creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel -- and called for a halt to Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.

Netanyahu, who delivered a policy speech in parliament, has not directly endorsed Palestinian statehood and has said construction in existing Jewish settlements would continue in order to accommodate growing families.

He has demanded Abbas's Palestinian Authority meet its commitments under the road map, including a crackdown on militants -- a task complicated by the 2007 takeover of the Gaza Strip by Hamas Islamists.

In Washington on Thursday, Abbas intends to urge Obama to press Israel to stop settlement expansion, Palestinian officials said.

Underscoring some common ground with Obama, who is to make a speech in Egypt on June 4 to the Muslim world, Netanyahu called in parliament for Arab countries to "join the peace effort".

The Israeli leader has proposed shifting the focus of currently suspended peace talks with the Palestinians from difficult territorial issues he said have stymied progress to improving economic, security and political relations.