Belgian Prime Minister said his country "has understanding" for the initiative of the Palestinians to seek UN statehood recognition later this month.
"They want to make things happen," he added.
However, he added during a two-day visit to Israel, that the Palestinian initiative should not "exacerbate the stalemate in the peace process" and "jeopardize the dialogue" between Israel and the Palestinians.
EU Foreign Ministers, who gathered this weekend in Poland to discuss the question of Palestinian statehood bid, are trying to come up with a common position ahead of the UN General Assembly but appeared rather split with some countries ready to support the Palestinian move and others favouring direct peace talks.
In principle, Belgium supports the independence of Palestine. However, it calls for a negotiated solution. A spokesman for the Belgian foreign ministry said: "The unilateral actions could be counter-productive."
Yves Leterme, who arrived in Israel Saturday night, began his first visit to the country by visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust in Jerusalem. There he praised the courage of those who took risks to help Jews during WWII. He also called on Israel and the Palestinians to "have the courage today to take risks for a peaceful coexistence in the region."
He later met with Israel’s opposition leader, Tzipi Livni, Israeli Industry, Trade and Labor Minister, Shalom Simhon and business leaders before attending the inauguration of the new premises of the Belgian embassy in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv.
Sunday evening, he held a working meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres and discussed with him the strengthening of bilateral economic relations, including in the high-tech sector, the Arab spring and the Israel-Palestinian peace process.
Peres said thatIsrael and Belgium must develop trade in areas other than diamonds, noting that Belgium is Europe''s second leading trade partner with Israel, but that 70 percent of the trade is tied to the gems.
The economies of the two countries are similar, both are small countries, open and have very high-tech industries. There is significant potential for cooperation specifically in the fields of communications technology and advanced medicine.
Regarding the current state of affairs between Israel and the Palestinians, President Peres said: "It would be unfortunate to arrive at a unilateral declaration of statehood by the Palestinians at the UN that could lead to a stalemate between the sides especially when a peace agreement can be achieved through direct negotiations." "The gaps are not that wide," he added.
"We have great respect for the Palestinian leadership, Abbas and Fayyad, and I believe that we can make peace. The contribution of the Quartet and the European Union will be significant if they can lead the parties back to the negotiating table and enable them to conduct direct negotiations," the Israeli president said.
Monday, the Belgian Premier was to meet his Israeli counterpart Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
In the afternoon he was to travel to Ramallah to meet Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and President Mahmoud Abbas.