Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wrapping up a four-day trip to Washington and Paris, secured French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s agreement to help revive peace talks with the Palestinian Authority.

During a 90-minute meeting yesterday, Netanyahu and Sarkozy talked about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as international efforts to stop Iran’s nuclear program, according to a joint statement issued after the meeting.

The two leaders discussed ways to “speedily re-launch the Middle East peace process” and “agreed to extend all efforts to that end,” their spokesmen said in the statement. Netanyahu left without responding to reporters’ requests to elaborate.

Netanyahu’s reception in Paris, where he was greeted by a military color guard and an embrace from Sarkozy, contrasted with his subdued entrance to the White House three days ago. There, the prime minister’s van pulled up to the West Wing doors after dark and he quickly passed by the two Marine guards to meet Obama in the Oval Office.

In his only public remark before leaving Washington, the prime minister insisted the visit was “warm and open” and said media reports of tensions were “inaccurate.” Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, also said the meeting went well, speaking in Washington to a conference of North American Jewish organizations.

Netanyahu has sought to cast himself as an eager peacemaker during this trip, calling on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, during a speech to a conference of Jewish organizations in Washington, to resume peace talks immediately. That came four days after Abbas announced he won’t run for re- election, largely because of his frustration with Israel’s negotiating position.

Israeli Settlements

Tensions with the Palestinians grew after a Middle East shuttle diplomacy mission by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who praised Netanyahu on Oct. 31 in Jerusalem for making an “unprecedented” proposal to limit expansion of settlements.

She spent the rest of the week in Morocco, Cairo and Washington, trying to placate Abbas and Arab leaders who were irate over what they viewed as the Obama administration abandoning its earlier demand that Israel freeze West Bank settlement construction.

Clinton said this wasn’t true and that Obama still considers settlements to be illegal.

Abbas’s Call

Abbas repeated his call yesterday for a halt to Israeli construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

“Israel continues looting our land, building settlements, demolishing our houses, and constantly making Jerusalem Jewish. Then, at the end, we hear demands to resume the negotiations,” Abbas said in the West Bank city of Ramallah, referring to Clinton’s call on the Palestinians to restart the negotiations.

Netanyahu’s reception in Paris also started off cool, with the Figaro newspaper suggesting that hopes for Middle East peace under Netanyahu had “collapsed like a souffle.”

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a Nov. 10 interview with France Inter radio that while in the past he has been heartened by the peace movement in Israel, now “it seems to me that aspiration has disappeared.” He said a settlement freeze is “indispensable.”

Netanyahu, during his meeting with Sarkozy, said Israel is ready to hold immediate peace talks with Syria without preconditions, the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz reported today, without saying where it obtained the information.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is scheduled to visit Sarkozy tomorrow, said earlier that his country isn’t seeking any conditions for talks though it has rights it won’t abandon, according to Haaretz.

Netanyahu started his day by meeting French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde and attended a dinner reception at the Israeli ambassador’s residence the previous night that featured an appearance by Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer.

Also present at the Paris event were Galia Maor, chief executive of Bank Leumi Le-Israel Ltd., the country’s biggest bank, and Yair Saroussi, chairman of Bank Hapoalim Ltd., the No. 2 lender, the Israeli embassy said in a statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Ferziger in Paris at jferziger@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 11, 2009 22:18 EST