(RTTNews) -  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who resisted Washington's calls to halt Israeli settlements in the West Bank, is to meet US President Barrack Obama at the the Oval Office Monday evening, said the White House.

Netanyahu, who arrived in Washington Sunday, is also scheduled to address a conference of Jewish community activists in the city.

Media reports said the leaders will discuss the progress of efforts to revive Middle East peace talks as well as Iran's change of stand in its response to an international offer over uranium enrichment.

As part of the international community's efforts to ensure transparency to Iran's claims that it is enriching nuclear-potent uranium for peaceful purposes, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last month handed a draft proposal advising Iran how to move forward on its uranium enrichment program.

Responding to United Nations-brokered nuclear fuel deal, Iran asked IAEA to set up a technical commission to review the same.

Later, Iran backed out from its willingness to allow enrich its uranium outside the country. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei vowed Tehran would not cooperate with any international dialogue where Washington's opinion becomes decisive.
Efforts to revive the US-brokered peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, suspended a year ago, did not yield any results so far.

Jewish settlements in the West Bank remains one of the major hurdles for the revival of Middle East peace talks.

Israeli leadership is reluctant to commit to the sensitive issue of halting settlement construction, a key demand the US has made of its ally.

While Washington and Palestinian President Mehmoud Abbas call for a total freeze on settlements, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the idea, saying "natural growth" of settlements must be allowed. He says Israel will build no new settlements in the West Bank, but will continue construction inside existing ones to accommodate population expansion.

Abbas has threatened that he would not run in the next Palestinian elections because of the Netanyahu-led government's refusal to fully freeze Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank. About 450,000 Israelis live in more than 100 settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

During her Middle East tour last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended Washington's stance that it does not accept the legitimacy of new Israeli settlements.

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