US President Barack Obamahas defended his decision not to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his upcoming Washington visit, saying he was following basic protocol of not meeting world leaders just weeks before an election.

"We have a practice of not meeting with leaders right before their elections," Obama said at a joint news conference German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"Some of this just has to do with how we do business, and I think it's important for us to maintain these protocols because the U.S.-Israeli relationship is not about a particular party," he said.

Obama added that if Merkel had an election coming up shortly, she would not have been invited to White House and probably would not have asked for such a meeting.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.