Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met for talks today that the Israeli premier said would bypass some of the most contentious issues of the Middle East conflict.
And in an apparent nod towards an alternative track involving the Arab League and a 2002 Saudi-initiated peace plan, before the meeting Mr Olmert told his cabinet he was "willing to hold a dialogue with any grouping of Arab states about their ideas".
Neither Mr Olmert or Mr Abbas appear to be in a position to make bold moves towards a final peace deal.
Mr Olmert's approval rating at home is in single digits and Mr Abbas's more moderate Fatah faction shares power with Hamas, an Islamist group that does not recognise Israel.
The talks were held at Washington's behest, were the first between the two men since they agreed during a visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last month to meet every two weeks.
"It was a positive meeting, part of the ongoing dialogue which helps build confidence between the Israeli and Palestinian leadership," Mr Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin said.
"The next meeting will be in a couple weeks and there's a strong possibility it will be in [the West Bank town of] Jericho."
Saeb Erekat, a senior Abbas aide, said: "This meeting is only the beginning. I don't think that one meeting can solve all the problems."
Six years after Israel and the Palestinians last held final-status talks, Washington is seeking to shape what it terms a "political horizon" for both sides while it tries to enlist Arab support for its own policies in Iraq and towards Iran.
"They talked a bit about the political horizon," Ms Eisin said, citing "economic ideas that can be implemented".
She said "final-status" issues were not raised in the first half of the session, also attended by Israel's defence and foreign ministers and Abbas aides.
She said Mr Olmert did not disclose what he and Mr Abbas discussed in an hour-long private talk.
Before the talks, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum dismissed the meeting as "useless" and a "photo opportunity".
Mr Abbas is pushing for Mr Olmert to hold talks based on the 2002 Arab peace initiative. An Arab League committee of 13 foreign ministers will meet in Cairo on Wednesday to talk about setting up several working groups to promote the plan.
Mr Olmert repeated he saw "positive elements" in the proposal offering Israel relations with all Arab states if it withdrew from all land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war, allowed a Palestinian state and reached an acceptable solution for Palestinian refugees.
Aides said yesterday that Mr Olmert, whose political future could hinge on the interim report later this month of an Israeli inquiry into last year's inconclusive Lebanon war, was "leaning in favour" of contacts with an Arab League working group.