German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle met Sunday with Israeli officials on a visit to support nascent peace talks, offering to try to soften a European ban on dealings with Jewish settlements.

"This meeting comes after we relaunched the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, and I know that Germany is deeply supportive of the need of direct, bilateral negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians," Israeli Justice Minister and chief negotiator Tzipi Livni said ahead of their Jerusalem meeting.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for their leadership in agreeing to resume peace talks, the White House said.

In separate statements with very similar wording following phone calls with the two men, Obama praised their "leadership and courage" in sending negotiators back to the table this week in Washington for the first time in three years.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said any future peace deal with Israel will be put to a referendum, in remarks published Monday, four days after Washington announced the resumption of negotiations.

"Any agreement with the Israelis will be brought to a referendum," Abbas told Jordanian government-owned Al-Rai newspaper.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned ministers Sunday that renewed peace talks with the Palestinians will be tough, and said any draft treaty would be put to a referendum.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday said Israeli and Palestinian negotiators had agreed to meet to prepare a resumption of direct peace talks, stalled since 2010.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will meet in Washington within "the next week or so" after an agreement on the basis to resume peace talks.

The announcement came after he spent four days consulting the Israeli and Palestinian leadership -- and a last-minute helicopter dash to Ramallah in the West Bank.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas paid a rare visit on Friday to a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, placing a wreath at the cemetery in the Shatila camp in the capital Beirut.

A small crowd gathered ahead of his brief visit to welcome him at the Martyrs Cemetery on the outskirts of the camp, one of 12 housing Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stressed on Thursday that the Palestinian Authority does not meddle in the affairs of Arab countries, including those of Lebanon.

He said: “We are in no need of weapons because we are protected by the Lebanese government and people.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas assured on Wednesday abiding by the Lebanese cabinet's decision regarding the possession of arms in the country's refugee camps.

"We abide by the Lebanese cabinet's decisions regarding Lebanon's safety and the possession of weapons in refugee camps,” Abbas said in a mutual press conference with his Lebanese counterpart in Baabda Palace.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is due in Beirut Wednesday, where he is expected to offer the Lebanese authorities assurances that the Palestinian refugee camps will stay clear of the country's growing Syria-related unrest.

During his three-day visit, Abbas is also expected to discuss the situation of Palestinians who fled Syria for Lebanon, which is already home to some 470,000 Palestinian refugees living in 12 official camps.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had made "useful and constructive proposals" during his four-day visit last week and said he was "optimistic" about the outcome.

His remarks, at a news conference with visiting Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta, came in the wake of Kerry's latest attempt to coax Israel and the Palestinians back into direct peace talks, in a visit which the chief Palestinian negotiator said had failed to achieve any breakthrough.