JERUSALEM - Israel wants to reopen a serious dialogue with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and work with him to establish a Palestinian state, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Tuesday.

Livni spoke after meeting Monday with Abbas in New York, in the first working session between high-ranking Israeli and Palestinian officials in four months. Their talks coincided with Abbas' efforts to persuade the Palestinians' Hamas rulers to moderate their anti-Israel policies and join with his Fatah party in a coalition government.

Tzipi Livni, left, Foreign Minister of Israel meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, at U.N. Headquarters in New York Monday, Sept. 18, 2006. [AP]

"I don't see this as one meeting and each side checks off a box and goes home," Livni told Israel's Army Radio about her talks with Abbas on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. "The idea is to establish a permanent channel of dialogue."

"We have a goal ... of achieving a two-state solution," she said.

Israel's dialogue with the Palestinians has been largely frozen since Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, won Palestinian parliamentary elections in January. But Israel considers Abbas ¡ª a moderate elected separately in 2005 ¡ª an acceptable negotiating conduit.

"It was a very, very positive meeting with Mrs. Livni. We talked (about) everything," Abbas said after the talks at the United Nations.

Abbas and Livni discussed reopening the dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian officials, including a meeting between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, as soon as possible, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.

Abbas agreed to an unconditional meeting with Olmert that would be part of a series of meetings between Palestinian and Israeli officials, he said.

The two leaders were about to hold their first working meeting in June when Hamas-affiliated militants captured an Israeli soldier, derailing all efforts at talks.

Abbas promised Livni to "exert maximum effort" to secure the soldier's release, Erekat said.

Livni said she told Abbas that Israel stood firm by its refusal to deal with Hamas until it renounces violence, recognizes signed peace agreements and recognizes Israel. Hamas has resisted these demands, though, and that could compromise the establishment of a coalition government and dash Abbas' hopes of restoring hundreds of millions of dollars in international funding cut off after Hamas took power.

Yielding to growing domestic pressure, Hamas agreed last week to form a coalition with Fatah in the hopes of lifting the economic boycott, which has made it impossible for the government to pay employees who provide for one-third of all Palestinians. But the U.S. and EU want clearer statements on the new government's commitment to peace efforts.

Although Israel has postponed its plan to withdraw from large areas of the West Bank, the government is interested in advancing in the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan that outlines the formation of a Palestinian state, Livni said.

"The road map is still on the table," she said.

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