Palestine and Israel indicate that they would like to find a way to go forward in peace talks, U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday.

"Obviously, we are working hard to try to find a way forward," Kerry told reporters before a meeting with visiting Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

The meeting came after US-brokered peace talks ran into a stalemate last week when both Israel and Palestine took what the White House said "unhelpful unilateral actions."

On April 1, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed documents to apply for membership to 15 United Nations agencies, after Israel refused to release a fourth and last tranche of 26 Palestinian prisoners, part of a deal to reopen the bilateral talks.

For his part, Lieberman said Israel is ready to "sacrifice a lot" to achieve a peace deal with Palestine "in the midst of a very crucial process."

"I think that you and us have the same desire to achieve a comprehensive solution, to achieve a final status agreement," Lieberman told Kerry.

"We are looking for the same positive approach from the other side, and we think that any unilateral steps, they only can undermine all our efforts," Lieberman said.

When Palestinian-Israeli talks resumed after a hiatus of three years, Kerry had aimed for a deal within nine months on all the final-status issues -- security, border, the status of Jerusalem and refugees, but no visible progress had been made despite his hard push in a dozen visits to the region in the past year.

The two parties have wrangled over other intractable issues like settlement building on the occupied land and security arrangements.