Washington ? The Obama administration on Friday laid out a bold shift in its Mideast peace strategy, stepping up pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to resume stalled talks by moving immediately to negotiations on the toughest issues dividing them, like the borders of a Palestinian state and the status of Jerusalem.

On its face, a move to tackle those two defining and difficult issues that Israel has long refused to budge on would appear to be a major turnaround in long-standing American policy to push for incremental Mideast progress.

But U.S. officials stressed that the shift does not abandon the administration’s comprehensive approach to peace and said their overall aim is get the parties beyond daily disagreements and back to the negotiating table, where all issues would be discussed.