MADRID - Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos on Tuesday urged Israel and the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table.

Moratinos met on Tuesday with Alvaro de Soto, UN special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and the UN secretary general's personal representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestine National Authority.

The two agreed that different players and the international community could contribute to the settlement of the Middle East problem.

Moratinos said that as the military path had failed, the parties must return to the negotiating table, focusing on restarting the peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Moratinos hoped a national unity government formed by the Palestinians would improve the region's political climate.

He urged the international community to take the responsibility for creating a viable peace, because it was not obvious that the parties on the ground could do so.

The two also discussed what the UN, the European Union and Spain could do together to reactivate the peace process. They gave a positive review to the Alicante Declaration, adopted at the Mediterranean Forum of foreign ministers convened on October 27-28 .