Obama looking past UN to new Mideast talks

Facing a potentially destabilizing diplomatic clash, President Barack Obama heads to the United Nations next week already looking beyond a potential vote on Palestinian statehood and toward laying the groundwork for the resumption of stalled Middle East peace talks.

Obama had hoped to focus his efforts at the meetings of the UN General Assembly on boosting the standing of Libya's former rebel leaders and touting the United Nations' role in dismantling Moammar Gadhafi's regime. But success in Libya seems likely to be overshadowed by a Palestinian push for full UN membership -- an effort over which Obama has little influence.

White House officials say it's still unclear what course the Palestinians will take in Manhattan next week. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday that he will ask the UN Security Council to endorse his statehood bid, though he said he was open to other unspecified options. The United States has pledged to veto the statehood bid, and the Obama administration has senior diplomats in the region making a last-ditch effort to persuade the Palestinians to drop the measure.

But the White House insists its main focus is not on what happens at the UN, but on resuming direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. U.S. officials contend that those negotiations provide the only credible pathway for the Palestinians to achieve statehood.

"Whatever happens at the United Nations, there's going to have to be a process to get these two parties back to the table when we get beyond next week," White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said Friday.

As part of the effort to revive the stalled negotiations, Obama will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the UN meeting next week. There are currently no plans for Obama to meet with Abbas in Manhattan, and the White House said the two leaders had not spoken recently.