<p><br /> US President Barack Obama will meet face-to-face with the leaders of Israel and Palestine for the first direct peace talks over the volatile West Bank in almost two years.<br /> </p><p><br /> Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas meet in Washington after a 20-month hiatus to try and solve unrest between the two states.<br /> </p><p><br /> Obama, who has staked considerable political capital on the Washington talks, urged both sides to grasp the chance for peace after separate meetings at the White House on Wednesday.<br /> </p><p><br /> "This moment of opportunity may not soon come again. They cannot afford to let it slip away," Obama said.<br /> </p><p><br /> The Palestinians say they will drop out of the negotiations unless Israel extends a law stopping Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank when it expires this month.<br /> </p><p><br /> However, Netanyahu, who heads a coalition dominated by pro-settler parties, has resisted any formal extension of the partial construction freeze.<br /> </p><p><br /> Four Israeli settlers were killed by the Islamist Palestinian group Hamas in a shooting attack in the West Bank on Tuesday and another two people were injured in a similar attack by suspected Palestinian gunmen on Wednesday.<br /> </p><p><br /> The talks are also seen as a test of Obama's faltering drive to improve ties with the Muslim world as he pushes for a united front against Iran's nuclear ambitions.<br /> </p>
