Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that he will push President Barack Obama for the release of a Jewish American jailed by the US for spying in 1987.
The Israeli prime minister said in a statement that he would press for the release of Jonathan Pollard "in a formal and public manner".
However White House officials dismissed the possibility of letting the former Navy intelligence analyst out of prison early.
President Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said: "I am not aware that that's something that the president is looking at doing.”