JERUSALEM/NEW YORK: Israel's foreign minister yesterday said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's summit with the Palestinian and American leaders was a victory because it took place even though Israel rebuffed demands to freeze settlement in the West Bank.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu met US President Barack Obama and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in New York in his first meeting with the two leaders since coming to power in March. Obama told the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to do more to unblock the peace process and urged them to relaunch negotiations soon.

"This government has shown that you don't always need to get flustered, to surrender and give in," Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio. "What's important for me is that this government kept its promises to the voter ... and the fact is that this meeting happened."