Western countries have welcomed a decision by Arab foreign ministers to back indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks aimed at putting the long-stalled Middle East peace process back on track.
Washington has been struggling for months to coax the Israelis and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table after talks were suspended in the wake of Israel's devastating war on Gaza launched in December 2008.
The Palestinians have refused to meet directly with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu without a complete freeze of Jewish settlement growth in the occupied territories.
Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband was the latest to put his weight behind indirect talks, an initiative pushed by the United States as a way of breaking the deadlock.
"It is the right time for both sides to show the courage, commitment and compromise necessary to bring a lasting peace for... the people of the region," Miliband said on Thursday.
"These talks must begin soon and deal directly with the difficult issues at the core of this conflict," he added, calling for "tangible momentum within months" of negotiations starting.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said the Israeli-Palestinian talks would be one of the key issues at the half-yearly meeting of EU foreign ministers in Cordoba on Friday and Saturday.
The Middle East was up for discussion "at a critical time when we want to step up the European contribution to the efforts of the new American government, said Moratinos, whose country holds the six-monthly EU presidency.