At Thursday’s news conference in Ramallah, following talks with President Mahmoud Abbas, Obama said: “”That’s not to say settlements aren’t important, that’s to say if we resolve the main problems, then settlements will be resolved.”

“If the only way to begin the conversation we have to get everything right from the outset … then we’re never going to get to the broader issue, which is how do you structure a state of Palestine,” Obama added.

In response to Obama’s remarks Abbas did not openly call for a settlement freeze as a precondition for negotiations, though he didn’t say the opposite either.

Illegal settlements have been the major obstacle to all negotiations as Israel refused Palestinians’ demands to stop construction of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem despite settlements being illegal under the fourth Geneva convention and being in defiance of UN resolutions.

At the beginning of Obama’s speech in Ramallah, the president said that the United States was “deeply committed” to creating a sovereign state of Palestine.

Obama is on his first visit to the close U.S. ally Israel as president.

After a trip to the West Bank, where he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas he spoke to Israeli students in Jerusalem. saying that continued settlement activity was “counterproductive” to peace, and that the Palestinians had a right to self-determination, Reuters reported.

But he also insisted that now was the time for the Arab world to start normalizing relations with the Jewish state, according to the news agency.

After he leaves Israel on Friday, Obama is scheduled to visit Jordan

The announcement was made in a joint statement with Israeli president Shimon Peres during Rossell’s first visit to Israel and the West Bank.

Rosell says the launched the initiative “in the hope that it can serve to build bridges of dialogue between the two communities that can help lead to reconciliation between the two,” Rosell said.

The venue has not been decided, but the most probable choice will be Tel Aviv, which has the biggest capacity stadiums, accoridng to Israeli media reports.

After landing in Tel Aviv on Thursday, after a direct flight from Milan, the Barcelona directors headed for the Kfar Ha Maccabiah complex for a private interview with the Israeli president, Shimon Peres.

After speaking to the media, the Barcelona representatives visited the Isaac Rabin Memorial, in the square that is named after the Israeli politician that was assassinated in 1995 after giving a speech in favor of peace.

Rosell is due to meet Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and head of Palestinian Football Association Jibril Rajoub in Ramallah on Friday to promote the initiative.

Last year FC Barcelona outraged Palestinians for extending an invitation to Gilad Shalit, the Israeli occupation soldier who was held as a prisoner of war in Gaza for five years, to attend a football match against Real Madrid at Barcelona’s home stadium Camp Nou on 7 October.

According to the Spanish daily El Pais, the invitation to Shalit, who was freed a year ago in a prisoner exchange Israel negotiated with Hamas, had been solicited by an Israeli “ex-minister.”

“This invitation does not indicate in any way that [the club] Barca takes a position in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” a club source told AFP.

Amid Palestinian anger, an invitation was also extended to a Palestinian Mahmoud al-Sarsak, who had recently been released having spent three years in an Israeli jail without charge  but he chose not to attend.

Romney said in the video that Palestinians have no interest in peace and are committed to the destruction of Israel. ”And I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes, committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel, and these thorny issues, and I say, ‘There’s just no way.’”

“You move things along the best way you can. You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that this is going to remain an unsolved problem – and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it,” Romney said.

Romney, who has frequently criticized Obama for damaging relations with Israel, added: “The idea of pushing on the Israelis to give something up to get the Palestinians to act is the worst idea in the world.”

In response to Romney’s remarks, the PLO’s envoy to the US Maen Areikat on Tuesday said  comments about the Palestinians showed a “complete ignorance” of the facts, according to Maan news. 

“Romney’s allegations that Palestinians are committed to the destruction of Israel are baseless given the fact that Palestinians have expressed support for the two-state solution, and repeatedly recognized Israel’s right to exist.”

Areikat added according to Maan news: “The best way the Republican nominee can help in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is by adhering to long-standing US policy regarding an acceptable solution that will lead to the end of military occupation of Palestine, peace, and security.”

At a speech in Jerusalem in July, Romney outraged Palestinians when he hailed Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.