Agencies JERUSALEM

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left Israel on Sunday for a meeting with the US  President Donald Trump that he hopes will reset relations with Washington after tensions with the previous administration over the Gaza war.

Netanyahu, the first foreign leader to visit Trump since his inauguration last month, leaves with a six-week ceasefire in Gaza still holding and negotiations aimed at a second phase expected to begin this week. "The decisions we made in the war have already changed the face of the Middle East," he said at the airport before his departure for the meeting expected on Tuesday.

"Our decisions and the courage of our soldiers have redrawn the map. But I believe that, working closely with President Trump, we can redraw it even further and for the better." Besides the ceasefire, talks are expected to focus on Saudi Arabia and Iran, which last year launched hundreds of missiles and drones against Israel.

Trump quit an international nuclear deal with Tehran in 2018 and both he and Netanyahu have vowed to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, concerns have grown in Iran that the new President might give Netanyahu the go-ahead to hit its nuclear sites.

Both leaders have also pushed to include Saudi Arabia in new regional arrangements building on the Abraham Accords. For Netanyahu the visit offers a chance to burnish his diplomatic credentials in Washington, which has come out strongly against the ICC warrant  for his arrest.Netanyahu is also looking to balance competing pressures from his own coalition.

Eldad Shavit, a former intelligence official who worked in the Prime Minister's office, said Netanyahu appeared to be balancing pressure from Trump to stick to the ceasefire and domestic opposition to the deal."He wants to make sure Trump is on his side, but he also wants to make sure his government doesn't collapse," he said.