The sponsors of the Middle East peace process - the US, EU, Russia and the UN - are trying to hammer out details of a planned peace conference in November.
The four key sponsors of the Middle East peace process have given strong backing to a November summit and say an Arab League panel will be invited.
US President George W Bush has called for the summit in order to kick-start stalled Israeli-Palestinian talks.
The Quartet - the US, EU, Russia and the UN - were meeting in New York to discuss the US-led peace summit plan.
The Quartet will hear from their Middle East envoy, ex-British PM Tony Blair, and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who recently visited the region.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the invitees would include Syria.
The Quartet, meeting in New York, will see Arab League representatives later.
The Quartet's new envoy, former UK PM Tony Blair, said that by the end of the year there could be a sense of how a Palestinian state could look.
In addition to Israel and the Palestinians, those countries expected to be invited to the November summit in the US include Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen and Syria.
The Quartet issued a roadmap in 2003 for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, but little progress has been made.
Several Arab countries have said they see no use for such a conference unless it has clear goals and a realistic chance of meeting them.
After Sunday's meeting, the Quartet issued a statement expressing its support for the proposed international meeting that the Americans have been in the forefront of promoting.
'Real substance'
Ms Rice said the Arab League committee, which includes Syria and Saudi Arabia, would be what she called natural invitees.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is chairing the talks with his Quartet partners: Condoleezza Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says the phrase "international meeting" is notable, perhaps indicating something short of a full-scale peace conference.
Mr Olmert urged Ms Rice to keep Hamas out of talks on all levelsMs Rice said she would brief her colleagues on her earlier talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
With the Palestinians divided and with Israel designating the Gaza Strip as hostile territory, the climate is not encouraging, he says.
Ms Rice has said that the peace summit must address substantive issues and advance the cause of a Palestinian state.
High stakes
Ms Rice said Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would draft a document that would "lay the foundations for serious negotiations".
The Quartet also called for humanitarian assistance to Gaza to continue without obstruction - a warning to Israel, which has threatened to cut off vital energy supplies.
Mr Abbas wants the meeting to set out the framework for an agreement between the two sides, including a timetable leading to the creation of a Palestinian state.
It was Mr Blair's first briefing since he took up his envoy post in June
Israel has so far resisted such a move.
The Quartet noted its grave concern about the continued rocket fire into Israel from the Gaza Strip, as well as what it termed recent efforts by the Hamas leadership there to stifle freedom of speech in the press.
Correspondents say the Palestinian leader is afraid that to attend a weak or inconclusive conference would play into the hands of his critics in the Islamist movement, Hamas, which is already confidently predicting it will be a waste of time.
The stakes over the coming weeks are high, our diplomatic correspondent says.
Hostile entity
Mr Blair summed up what he called the big picture.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Cabinet agreed on Sunday to free about 90 Palestinian prisoners in a move aimed at boosting support for Mr Abbas.
He was not foolishly optimistic, he said, but he claimed that there was now momentum in the process.
Thousands of Palestinians are being held in Israeli jailsOfficials say the prisoners' names would be confirmed later, but it is expected that they will not include anyone who has killed or wounded Israelis.
There was an "ambitious but achievable" plan to achieve by the end of the year a sense of how a Palestinian state would look, he said.
More than 10,000 Palestinian prisoners are being held in Israeli jails - it is expected that anyone who has killed or wounded Israelis will not be among those released.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was chairing the talks with his Quartet partners: Ms Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
It comes just days after the Israeli Cabinet declared Gaza a hostile entity.
The move, in response to continued rocket attacks by Palestinian militants in the coastal territory, could lead to the suspension of fuel and electricity supplies.
