RIYADH (AFP) - US special envoy George Mitchell discussed Middle East peace efforts with Saudi King Abdullah on Sunday, on the latest leg of a regional tour aimed at reigniting the peace process. Mitchell also met with Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal and Saudi intelligence chief Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz, according to a statement on the official news agency SPA. He arrived in Riyadh in the morning after stops in Israel, the Palestinian territories and Egypt. At each stop Mitchell emphasized US support for a two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying in Cairo on Saturday that Washington would exert great energy toward that goal. It has been the policy of the United States for many years that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies in a two-state solution, he told reporters after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Riyadh has also strongly advocated a two-state solution with its 2002 Arab peace initiative, which offers Israel blanket Arab recognition in exchange for creating a Palestinian state based on an Israeli pullout from occupied land. In recent months Prince Faisal and other senior Saudi diplomats have strongly urged Washington to pressure Israel into negotiations for a final peace pact. Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has proposed that Israels new government should hold parallel peace talks with both Syria and the Palestinians, an official said on Sunday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus right-leaning cabinet is scrambling to draw up a policy on the troubled Middle East peace process to try to avoid a possible clash with Israels main ally Washington. In a series of meetings with Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Barak has said the new cabinet should back a regional solution, a Defence Ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity. We must go to Washington with a proposal for a regional peace agreement which will include talks with Syria and the Palestinians that will ensure Israels interests, the official said. Baraks plan will also include a Palestinian recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, which Netanyahu demanded last week in talks with US special envoy George Mitchell and which the Palestinians rejected.