US says ready to discuss Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts

The United States declared at the United Nations on Tuesday it was "ready to talk" with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who rejected US-led peace efforts after Washington's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Earlier during a rare UN Security Council address, Abbas called for a multilateral international conference to be held by mid-2018 to pave way for full Palestinian statehood, along with a solution to the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

"We met with the President of the United States, Donald Trump, four times in 2017, and we have expressed our absolute readiness to reach a historic peace agreement," Abbas said.

"Yet this administration has not clarified its position. Is it for the two-state solution, or for one-state?"

He left the chamber before US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley spoke.

"Our negotiators are sitting right behind me, ready to talk. But we will not chase after you. The choice, Mr. President, is yours," said Haley, referring to Trump's son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, and US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt.

Kushner and Greenblatt are working on a new peace plan and met with the 15 Security Council ambassadors behind closed doors after the public meeting on Tuesday.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said last week the plan was "fairly well advanced" but there has been little detail on the plan so far.

White House spokesman Josh Raffel said a peace plan would be presented "when it is done and the time is right."

Palestinians view the Trump administration's intentions on peace efforts with deep scepticism after Trump reversed decades of US policy and recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and initiated the move of the US embassy there from Tel Aviv.

In December, the UN General Assembly voted 128-9, with 35 abstentions, to reject the US decision to recognise Jerusalem.

That vote in the 193-nation assembly came after 14 of the 15 council members voted in favour of a similar measure. The United States vetoed that draft resolution. 

The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has been deadlocked since a major push by the administration of Trump's predecessor Barack Obama ended in failure in April 2014.

The Palestinians hope that greater international involvement in the peace process will serve to counter what they see as a US stance biased in favour of Israel after Trump's decision on Jerusalem.