"Hard work" settling dispute with Obama -Israel

By Allyn Fisher-Ilan

PARIS (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday he hoped to reach understandings with the United States that would heal a rift over Jewish settlement growth in the West Bank.

A senior Israeli official who travelled with Netanyahu to Paris, where he met French President Nicolas Sarkozy, said "a lot of hard work" was needed to reach common ground with Washington on the settlement issue.

U.S. President Barack Obama wants Netanyahu to declare a total settlement freeze in the occupied West Bank, territory where Palestinians hope to establish a state.

Netanyahu has said he intends to build further within existing blocs to accommodate what he calls "natural growth" in settler families.

Speaking after his talks with Sarkozy, Netanyau told reporters that differences could occur "among the best of friends" and said Israel was in the process of clarifying its settlement policy to Washington.

Western diplomats said the abrupt cancellation of Netanyahu's planned meeting in Paris on Thursday with Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, underscored the difficulty both sides faced bridging their differences.

Mitchell will meet instead with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak in Washington on Monday. "I asked for the postponement of the meeting," Netanyahu said about the talks he had planned to hold with Mitchell in the French capital.

"Mr. Mitchell agreed immediately. We believed we had to clarify several issues and statistics. The defence minister will do this on Monday in the United States," Netanyahu said.