Obama to meet with Peres at White House on Tuesday

President Barack Obama will meet President Shimon Peres on Tuesday at the White House, spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Friday.

Obama has invited Egyptian, Israeli and Palestinian leaders to visit the White House over the next few weeks to discuss the Middle East peace process.

The meeting will come during Peres's visit to the United States to take part in a summit held by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel lobby group, Peres' office said in a statement earlier this week.

Peres will be the first Israeli statesman to meet Obama since the inauguration last month of the right-leaning government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu, who risks friction with the Obama administration over peacemaking with Palestinians, will meet the American president next month.

Obama has said reviving stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks with the goal of establishing a Palestinian state is a top priority for his administration. But Netanyahu has so far refused to commit himself to Palestinian statehood in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

An aide to Netanyahu on Tuesday said the prime minister's review of Israel's policy on the Middle East is expected to be completed by the time he visits the United States next month.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Haaretz on Monday that he believes Netanyahu will present the U.S. administration a diplomatic plan in line with the principle of "two states for two nations" during his upcoming visit to Washington.

The prime minister's office would not comment on Barak's remarks, but Netanyahu's aide said the policy review was under way and should be completed around the time Netanyahu goes to Washington.