Jerusalem:
Allaying fears in the US and Europe, Israel's newly elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that his government would dedicate the next few weeks on setting up a policy for the advancement of the peace process with the Palestinians.
"This government is a true unity government," he told his Cabinet during its first meeting in Jerusalem.
"It was born from a sentiment of deep responsibility over the need to urgently deal with the security, economic and social challenges now facing Israel. We are going to get right to work," the hardliner Israeli leader, an opponent of the two state solution to the Palestinian crisis, said.
"In the coming weeks, we will complete a policy for the advancement of peace and defence," he added.
The United states and several European countries have been urging Israel to re-affirm its commitment to the internationally mediated peace process.
Netanyahu and his controversial Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman have both said that they recognise past treaties between the two sides, but the latter's announcement that he considers only the 'road map' plan as legitimate and will ignore the process set forward by the Middle East peace conference in the US city of Annapolis had raised eyebrows in several countries.