Focus of talks

The suspension of building work is likely to feature high in Tuesday's agenda, according to Ephraim Kam, the deputy director of Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies.

"The question here is what next? Obama wants a continuation (of the freeze) but Netanyahu is under pressure in his own party and from those on the right to stand by his public promise that at the end of the period the building work will resume," Kam said on Sunday.

On the Palestinian front, Kam predicts the American and Israeli leaders will be trying to figure out how to move into the phase of direct negotiations. At the same time though, he is of the opinion that the indirect talks have no real flow as of yet.

The seeming lack of progress thus far means little is likely to be achieved by the Netanyahu-Obama session, according to David Ricci, an expert in American studies and politics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

From his assessment, including analyzing the American media, he is of the opinion that the meeting might "not be very pleasant."

"My guess is they're going to come out with a statement that papers over all of this because I don't think that Netanyahu is willing to make his decisions now. Also I don't think the president wants to upset the Jewish vote during an election campaign in the United States," said Ricci.

As far as the Jerusalem professor is concerned this meeting is happening too early, with neither man apparently ready to commit at this stage.

"I'm not really sure why they're having this meeting at all," he told Xinhua on Sunday.

The one possibility at the front of Ricci's mind is that both men are more concerned with their domestic issues than the peace process itself. Obama concerned about getting through the mid- terms relatively unscathed while Netanyahu also has challenges ahead on the home front.

Not only is he under pressure from the political hawks, it is now being widely reported in Israel that Labor, the only dovish party in his coalition, is attempting to force the rightist Israel Beiteinu party out of the government and replace it with the centrist Kadima.

Israel Beiteinu, or Israel Our Home, is headed by the controversial Avigdor Lieberman, whose fairly extreme views have made him something of an international pariah. Ehud Barak, who heads Labor, believes Tzipi Livni, the leader of Kadima, would be a more useful coalition partner and is an acceptable, even popular, face overseas.