is not an open-ended offer. while, israel indicates a military strike is still a possibility. expanding israeli settlementings in west bank. they have been a source of tension between the u.s. and israel. tonight, we take you on one of the largest where leaders say they would be happy to lead. china and the u.s. begin two days of critical talks on issues ranging from the world economy, climate change and nuclear proliferation. president obama says the outcome will shape the 21st century. and from australia, the latest baby pictures of a newborn that's packing on the pounds and pulling in the crowd. from the world's leading reporters and analysts, here is what's happening from around the world. this is "worldfocus." made possible, in part, by the followingunders -- good evening, i'm martin savidge. as we told you friday, this is a

critical week for u.s. israeli relations. no fewer than four prominent american officials are in israel to discuss iran's nuclear threat and to try to resolve differences between the two close allies. about israeli settlements on the west bank. we're going to have extensive congboth of these stories tonight. we begin with new tough talk from israeli's defense minister emud barack with robbert gates. barack made it clear that israel is still considering military action against iran. this is as gates spoke about new tougher sanctions. the possibility of an israeli attack on iran, that's our "lead focus" tonight. we begin with from this report from "worldfocus" producer lion. >> reporter: r made a short visit to israel today to make the case for nuclear negotiation with iran but after meeting with israel's defense minister, ehud barak. >> we're in no position to tell

the administration of want an engagement with iran or not but if there is an engagement we believe it should be short in time, well defined in objectives followed by sanctions. we clearly believe that no options should be removed for -- from the table. this is our policy. we mean it. >> reporter: three times during the press conference, barack repeated that no options are off of the take. making it clear that israel is sticking to its hardline approach to tehran, despite u.s. pressure, not make a preemptive strike on iran's nuclear facility. during a stop later in iman jordan, secretary gates threatened new, tougher sanctions if iran doesn't agree to talk soon. >> if the engagement process is not successful, the united states is prepared to press for significant additional sanctions. our hope, still remains that

iran will respond to the president's outstretched hand in a positive and constructive way. but wesee. >> reporter: but sanctions and talks return reassuring israelis, who are in iran's line of fire. cover the military for israel's channel 10 news. >> i mean if you look at the size of the israeli air force effort and you look at the way iran had dispersed its nuclear facilities, you realize that the israeli's options are very limited. and however you have to assume that is preparing such a military option. because there might be a time when israel sees that nobody's doing anything to stop iran. and israel has to defend itself. if we not do anything in the coming months, anything that might interrupt the american effort to engage iran. but at the end of the year, i think both washington and -- will have to make some kind of preassessment the way that the iranian program is going through

and what needs to be don stop it. >> america's envoy to the middle east george mitchell is also in nafrt the world and during the weekend he became only the second american diplomat to visit syria in theas and the escalation. >> estimates are that nearly 300,000 jewish settlers live in another 180,00 the obama dministratn, comprehensive middleaea orthodor

east st summer night in the west bank, the orthodox jewish, revnel a completion of a new handwritten torah. competition is fierce fo theyou bthrates and the her major orthodox settlements within the elite have quickly become the most populous settlements in the west bank. with mountingol perowrhe west

bank. but loosening the rope around the neck of nablus shows the potential of the west bank when its given just a little space to breathe. sharene tad rus, al jazeera, nablus in the occupied west bank. now to help us understand all of these developments, we are joined, again, by a senior fellow and the co-director of the middle east task force at new american foundation. welcome back. >> thank you. >> let's start with the -- well, comments by ehud barak today. first of all, who is he speaking to, u.s., iran, the israelis? and what was he really trying to communicate. >> i tell you, all of the above. not least the israeli domestic audience. this is a long established israeli position, to keep all

the options on the table. now, i think the israelis do see that the greater ability of the obama administration to build an international consensus of engagement but also sanctions is something the israelis are interested in helping, i think. there is of course a very fluid situation inside iran itself politkay. some conservative criticism of ahmadinejad in addition to the reformist protest. i think it was more of a maintenance exercise and a handholding at this stage. >> do you think that israel, at all, would be satisfied with these promises coming about the prospect of tougher sanctions against iran? >> look, i think it's a misconception to think that israeli's chomping at the bit to attack. i think that israel sees itself as playing the bad cop consistently on the iran issue, the head of the massoud recently said no iranian nuclear arms

capacity been 2014 so i think not an immediate sense of urgency but israel wants to make clear that the options there seen in. >> we mentioned that george mitchell went to syria over the weekend. how significant, first of all, that was visit onto itself and i will branch out from there and let's talk significant of that visit. >> well, it's very significant in the context of senior administration officials being there. mitchell's second visit. against the backdrop of the previous administration, which really disengaged from syria. you now see efforts to engage with syria. syria has an important role with iran. an important regional ally in iraq, appreciating militants from getting across the border. syria has played a constructive role recently with the lebanese elections. is moving closer again to saudi arabiya in working with that relationship. so i think all those issues are relevant. in particular, mitchell wants to see the israeli/syrian peace talks relaunched. syria's in favor of that but

doesn't want to go back to square one. the defense establishment understands the need for a deal and to withdraw from goran. prime minister netanyahu, far more antsy. >> well, ducover everything. i wanted to know about that. and finally on the ongoing settlement dispute between the u.s. and israel. any progress made between these two countries to see eye to eye? >> the obama administration has taken a principal stance of a freeze. today the israeli military announced that over 300,000 israelis now live in the west bank, up from 110,000 in '93 when the peace talks began. i also think it's very difficult to get the arab states to move forward with normalization steps if you don't get a complete settlement freeze. so i think there is progress. where things are being held up, east jerusalem, thorny issue. it's over the green line. international law means you can't build settlements. netanyahu is trying to push back on that issue. i think that we're moving

towards a resolution on this but we're not there p yet. >> daniel levy, thank you. >> thank you. and if you'd like even more insight on all of this, visit our website, worldfocus.org. some other news from around the world, there's been another deadly attack. a suicide bombing in chechnya. that's the russian republic for a prominent human right's defender was murdered two, wes ago, and where islamic insurgents and common criminals are increasing their attacks. yesterday, a suicide bomber blew himself up in front of a consert hall after being stopped from entering minutes before the start of a play being watched by 800 people. four police officers and two workers were killed. and now to africa. today in uslim rebels continue to attack police stations in the north as they attend to expand strict islamic law throughout that very large country. the gunbattles that began yesterday left at least 55 people dead, most of them militants, and some reports put the figure at more than double that.

one-third of nigeria's 36 states are under so call sharia law. for a change today, north korea said it wants to talk, sing a new dialogue to resolve tensions over its nuclear program. the statement made by the foreign ministry was read on north korean television. in it the regime seem to be proposing direct negotiations with the united states and rejected a return to the six-nation talks that the united states maintains is the only appropriate way to engage north korea. the united states and china ve participated in those es that talks, along with north korea, south korea, russia and japan. for their part, the u.s. and china began two days of high-level meetings in washington today with nuclear proliferation and the global economic crisis month issues on the agenda. in an address to the diplomats from both countries, president

obama said that he was under no illusion that the u.s. and china will agree on every issue while underscoring the value of the relationship. >> the relationship between the united states and china will shape the 21st century, which makes it as important as any bilateral relationship in the world. >> for more on the talks going on today and tomorrow, we're joined once again by orvelle shell, a china scholar and a director of the center on u.s./china relations at the asian society here in through york. welcome back. >> pleasure. >> we just heard president obama as he was talking about the importance of the bilateral relationship between the u.s. and china. how significant do you think his speech was? >> well, i think they're trying to merge these two extremely important families. the most-important families of the world -- china and the u.s. and i think, you know, if it failed, it would be catastrophic. what they're trying to do is build a different kind of relationship, a new relationship, where we have more

areas of convergence and cooperation than disagreement and that's challenge. >> well the president outlines sort of four areas that he saw as priority. economic recovery, climate change, proliferation of nuclear arms, and what he called transnational threats, or terrorism. how likely are we to see eye to eye on all of these issues? >> well, we won't and there are many areas where we do have profound disagreements. but we're at a point in the world's history where, if we don't have an agreement on issues such as the global economy and climate change, we're not going to find remed s remedies. so the whole chemistry is changed now with china. we must cooperate and collaborate despite different systems, different viewpoints and many disagreements on other subjects. >> what is likely to come out of this meeting? i mean, set agreements? something to be signed? or just, we had a good talk and we'll talk further in the future? >> well, i think that the baton

has be handed off from the obama administration. not the strategic economic dialogue. it's wider. and hillary clinton will do the strategy. and tim geithner will do the economics. so this is to kind of exorate. and periodically send it in for a tune up. these meetings, twice a year. and this will keep, i think what is often a very unstable relationship, on a much more stabile basis. >> what do you think could be the two most contentious issues? >> well, i think the issue that's really important now is climate change, because the copenhagen negotiations are coming up in december and if the u.s. and china could make some agreements that would give heart to the world to show that they are now in the game in a serious manner this would be an incredibly important move forward so that's going to be negotiated now. but they're much -- china's a developing country.

we're a developed country. we have different obligations than they do. but how do we both consecrate ourselves to solving that problem? that's going to be one of the biggest questions under discussion. >> and then i presume when we talk about nuclear arms, we're talking about north korea? >> the internal subject of north korea. and the truth is, we love to think of -- if china would only do this, that and the other, we could trap north korea. but i think china does not have as much influence as we imagine. this is a very artartic happened in state but it's extremely important that we collab wait china to do what can be done to bring them to heal, like iran. not an easy topic to have a clear solution for. >> orvel shell, thank you once again. >> pleasure. there was one more sign today of improving relations between china and taiwan. their presidents exchanged messages today for the first time since the two sides split six decades ago.

the exchanges were reported on china's state-run television. both leaders were have said to call for continuing efforts to promote peaceful development of their relations. and one other note from today's meetings between u.s. and chinese officials in washington, both treasury secretary timothy geithner and china's top economic policymaker spoke of some hopeful economic signs. the chinese official said the world economy is at a critical moment, moving out of crisis and toward recovery. and then from britain, some leading economists have set an unusual message to queen elizabeth about the financial crisis. they said they were sorry. the "observer" newspaper say the letter followed to the queen. last fall in which he demanded to know why no one had anticipated the credit crunch. the letter says the financial wizards who believe they could manage risky debts and protect the financial system were guilty of wishful thinking combined with hubris.

finally tonight a story we found irresistible as you're about to see why. at the zoo in sydney, australia there, is big news in the elephant family. actually it's small news. the first elephant ever born in that country. his parents came from thailand. his name is luck chi. it means son or male child to thai and was selected from more than 30,000 names entered in a competition. the youngster ways in at about 240 pounds and growing fast at a diet of 21 points of milk day a. well, he's got plenty of relatives to help him along. beyond the cute factor, his arrival is important because asian elephants are listed as endangered in the wild with only about 34,000 left. who doesn't love to show off baby pictures? that's "worldfocus" for this monday evening.

a reminder you can also watch us on the web and find much more global news at worldfocus.org. i'm martin savidge in new york. as always, thank you very much for joining us. we'll look for you back here again tomorrow and anytime on the web. until then, have a good night. "worldfocus" was made possible, in part, by the following funders --