Israeli PM heads to US for first Obama meeting

  Updated at: 0840 PST, Sunday, May 17, 2009   -the News
  TEL AVIV: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed to Washington on Sunday for his first meeting with President Barack Obama amid divisions on Middle East peacemaking and Iran's nuclear bid.

The hawkish premier, who wants a "fresh" approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, will unveil in the White House meeting on Monday his long-awaited policy for regional peace focused on countering Iran, aides have said. But tensions have already surfaced between the two leaders as Netanyahu has refused to endorse the creation of an independent Palestinian state, a bedrock principal of the US-backed peace efforts in the region.

The two were also set to discuss Iran's nuclear programme, which both Israel and the US suspect is aimed at developing an atomic bomb, a claim denied by Tehran. Netanyahu has assigned top priority to halting Iran's nuclear bid. Obama, however, has pledged to act vigorously to end the decades-old Middle East conflict and sees its resolution as a key component in a comprehensive regional policy for resolving the crisis with the Islamic republic. 

Meanwhile, Lebanese troops detained a suspected Israeli spy in the eastern Bekaa valley on Saturday, bringing to 13 the number picked up since April, an army spokesman said. “Ziad Homsi was arrested in his home in Saadnayel at dawn this morning as part of the
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