The US has no "grand expectations" from the summit of Israeli and Palestinian leaders which President Obama is to host on Tuesday, the White House says.
The talks in New York are to discuss the possibility of re-starting the Middle East peace process.
But both Israeli and Palestinian leaders have accused each other of blocking the initiative.
Israel has rejected US and Palestinian demands for a total freeze before a new round of talks can take place.
Mr Obama is bringing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas together for the first time since Mr Netanyahu came to office nearly six months ago.
"We're looking to continue to build on progress," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.
"We have no grand expectations out of just one meeting."
Israeli and Palestinian participants have also said they do not expect many concrete developments to emerge from the meeting.
Israeli government secretary Zvi Herzog said the meeting was "a step in the right direction", but that "conditions are not ripe for a formal re-launch of negotiations".
On Saturday, a senior Palestinian official told AFP news agency the meeting was taking place "because we don't want to disappoint the American administration which wants it held".
"That does not mean a resumption of peace talks," said the official.
'No change'
Disagreements over the settlements issue have blocked all attempts to restart peace talks so far.
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