High level Mid-East links resume

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Israeli and Palestinian cabinet ministers have held their highest level meeting since Benjamin Netanyahu became Israel's prime minister.

Israeli Regional Development Minister and Vice Premier Silvan Shalom met Palestinian Economy Minister Bassem Khoury met at a Jerusalem hotel.

The talks focused on economic issues. Formal peace negotiations between the two sides remain stalled.

Mr Netanyahu took office in April and is under US pressure to restart talks.

The agenda for Wednesday's meeting included easing restrictions on the entry of Palestinian business people to Israel, as well as boosting Israeli meat exports to the West Bank and dairy imports from the West Bank to Israel, Israeli officials said.

Mr Shalom said his objective was economic peace.

"I believe that we had some progress" he said. "We decided to have more meetings in the near future in order to find out what can be done in order to ease the life of the Palestinians, as well as the Israelis."

Mr Khoury said he hoped the talks would lead to tangible improvements in the lives of Palestinians.

"We hope it will not only be words, but there will also be some actions on the ground as well so we can really see the end of these measures that are stifling the growth of the Palestinian economy," he said.

Mr Netanyahu has said in the past he wants to shore up the Palestinian economy, but has acknowledged that this would not be a substitute for peace talks.

In the West Bank, Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, reaffirmed the Palestinian position that peace talks could not resume without an Israeli commitment to freeze settlement in the occupied West Bank.