The US leader will meet separately with the two men on Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations general assembly, before hosting a trilateral summit, the White House announced in a surprise move late Saturday.

The talks will seek "to lay the groundwork for the relaunch of negotiations, and to create a positive context for those negotiations so that they can succeed," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement.

Ahead of the talks, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is to meet US Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Washington on Monday, an Israeli defense ministry statement said, without providing further details.

The three-way meeting marks the first trilateral summit between the leaders since Obama came to the White House in January, vowing to make the search for an elusive peace in the Middle East a priority of his new Democratic Party administration.

And it comes just after new US envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell returned empty-handed from a mission to the region having failed to persuade Israeli leaders to freeze new settlement construction.

A US administration official cautioned against any expectations of a breakthrough or agreement.

Obama, who met separately with Netanyahu and Abbas for White House talks in May, thought it was important to get all three leaders together in a room to "continue to try to bridge gaps and bridge divides," the official said.

The official, who requested anonymity, also argued that it was significant that a trilateral meeting was being held so soon after Israel's devastating offensive against the Gaza Strip in December and the formation of a new Israeli government.

Netanyahu's office said the Israeli prime minister had "responded positively" to Obama's invitation, while top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat confirmed to AFP on Sunday that Abbas would attend the meeting.

"We hope that this meeting will be an opportunity for President Obama to listen to the different points of view and to understand who is blocking the negotiations," Erakat said.

A Palestinian Authority official who spoke earlier to AFP on condition of anonymity said the gathering did not constitute a resumption of peace talks with Israel.

"It will be a formal meeting because we don't want to disappoint the American administration which wants it held," the official said.

"That does not mean a resumption of peace talks (with Israel), because these depend on a halt to the building of settlements" by the Jewish state in the occupied West Bank and annexed Arab east Jerusalem, he said.

Mitchell, who helped broker peace in war-torn Northern Ireland in the 1990s, said the upcoming talks were a sign of Obama's "deep commitment to comprehensive peace."

The US president's personal engagement, Mitchell added in the White House statement, comes as "we continue our efforts to encourage all sides to take responsibility for peace and to create a positive context for the resumption of negotiations."

The Middle East peace Quartet -- the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- also plans to hold talks on the sidelines of next week's UN general assembly.

The Middle East peace talks have been suspended since December when Israel launched its assault on Gaza to halt militant rocket fire on southern Israel.

A UN report released last week sharply criticized Israeli troops for using disproportionate force during the assault, triggering anger from Israel which accused the international body of bias.

In Israel, foreign ministry spokesman Yossi Levi insisted "the Palestinian Authority is the one that is preventing the resumption of the peace process by making conditions that it has not made in the past."

Palestinians have been demanding a halt to Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, including annexed Arab east Jerusalem, as a condition for resuming talks.

But Netanyahu has repeatedly rebuffed US calls to freeze settlement construction, leading to a rare diplomatic spat between the Jewish state and its closest ally.

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