Mideast conference in Paris on January 15

Paris: Around 70 countries will gather in France on January 15 for a conference to throw the international community's weight behind a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, French officials said Thursday.

Neither Israel nor the Palestinians will be present at the meeting, but France intends to invite Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Paris some time afterwards to be briefed on the outcome of the talks, the foreign ministry said.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, currently visiting the Lebanese capital Beirut, said he hoped the meeting would "relaunch" the peace process and "re-affirm the necessity of having two states".

Netanyahu rejected a French proposal earlier this month to meet Abbas in Paris.

"We would like to invite him anyway," a French official said.