Lebanese President Michel Aoun is willing to resume indirect negotiations with Israel on the two nations' maritime border, "in accordance with international laws," Aoun informed US mediator John Desrocher on Monday.

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"The US should pressure Israel to show up to continue negotiations, without preconditions," Aoun said. The last round of talks on an Israeli-Lebanese maritime border did not resume after the last round, which took place in early May, due to Lebanon's stance.

According to Aoun, Israel cannot "force its unilateral positions in the negotiations."

Aoun told Desrocher that "given the new government in Israel, I hope that your talks with Israeli officials will lead to positive results."

The negotiations have been at an effective impasse since April of this year, due to a decision by Beirut, under influence from the country's military to add 1,340 km (833 miles) to the maritime area under dispute with Israel.

Lebanon is hoping that an agreement on a maritime border with Israel will allow it to discover natural gas reserves in its own territorial waters. Natural gas would be a great boon to the country's economy, which is on the verge of total collapse.

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Nasrallah urged Lebanese officials to negotiate from a point of strength with US Assistant Secretary of State David Schenker over the nearly 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of the Mediterranean Sea claimed by both countries.

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Schenker met with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri after his arrival on Monday. On Tuesday, he met with Lebanese President Michel Aoun and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who complained about new American sanctions that targeted Jammal Trust Bank for, as the US Treasury Department said, "knowingly facilitating banking activities for Hezbollah."

In comments released by Berri's office and circulated on local media, he said that Beirut has drafted laws in the past years to fight money laundering, adding that "the Lebanese economy and banking sector cannot take this amount of pressure."

The US considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization and has been imposing sanctions on the group for years. In July, the Treasury for the first time imposed sanctions on two Hezbollah legislators.

Lebanon hopes to unleash offshore oil and gas production as it grapples with an economic crisis. Washington is mediating between Israel and Lebanon, which have officially been at war since Israel's creation in 1948.

In addition to the disagreement over the maritime border, Israel and Lebanon also disagree over their land border. Earlier this year, the US had asked the Lebanese for a "unified position," signaling a perception that some were trying to separate the two issues.

"The American envoy is a friend of Israel and keen about [protecting] Israel's interests and wants to negotiate with our leaders on oil, gas, and border," Nasrallah said in a speech in Beirut.

Aoun told Schenker, who is on his first visit to Lebanon since taking the post earlier this year, that Lebanon hopes Washington would resume mediation with Israel for the demarcation of "land and maritime border" from where they stopped with Schenker's predecessor, David Satterfield.

Aoun said in June that he informed Satterfield that Lebanon believes demarcating the maritime and land borders reinforces stability in the area and urged Washington to help while respecting his country's frontiers and right to explore for oil and gas.

Schenker did not make any statements to journalists.

Aoun's office quoted him as saying that Washington supports stability in Lebanon, as well as its army and security forces. The US official was also quoted as saying that his country is ready to renew its efforts to contribute to finding solutions for the border problems.

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RIA quoted Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Bou Saab referring to upcoming talks with Israel to regulate the two countries' border dispute, to be mediated by US diplomat David Satterfield.

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Bou Saab said that Lebanon was "unwilling to give up any part of its border, on land or at sea. However, we are open to talks to establish the border."

Formally at war since 1948, Israel and Lebanon have long disagreed on border demarcations in the eastern Mediterranean, an issue that gained prominence in the past decade when large deposits of natural gas were found there.

The Lebanese minister's remarks come a week and a half after Israel said it expected the US-mediated talks to begin "within weeks" and two weeks after Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said that Israel was open to talks to demarcate its borders with Lebanon.

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Lebanon has not commented publicly on whether it would attend talks or on any possible timeline. The United States, which has been sending a senior envoy on shuttle missions between Lebanon and Israel, also has not announced a date or venue but said it is prepared to help them resolve the dispute.

Formally at war since 1948, Israel and Lebanon have long disagreed on border demarcations in the eastern Mediterranean, an issue that gained prominence in the past decade when large deposits of natural gas were found there.

Among the bridging proposals put forward by both sides was for international energy groups operating in both Israeli and Lebanese waters to carry out the first seismological survey of the disputed area, the Israeli official told Reuters.

Last week, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said Israel was open to U.S.-mediated talks on the sea border.

The senior Israeli official, who declined to be named, said on Tuesday that Israel expects the negotiations "will begin already in the coming weeks."

U.S. envoy David Satterfield has been traveling between Israel and Lebanon to try to lower tensions, which have also stemmed from a land border dispute.

The Israeli official said that if there were talks, they would address only the maritime border and not the land frontier.

"In the past 10 days of Satterfield's shuttling between Israel and Lebanon a number of technical issues have been discussed, like the agreement that the talks will happen at the U.N. facility in Naqoura in southern Lebanon and with U.S. mediation by Satterfield," the Israeli official said.

A U.S. official said that Washington "stands ready to work towards solutions that are mutually agreeable to both parties" but declined to elaborate on Satterfield's discussions.

Lebanese lawmakers close to parliament speaker Nabih Berri have quoted him as saying there was "clear progress" on efforts to resolve the border dispute. Lebanon was awaiting responses after presenting a "united stance" on the matter, they quoted him as saying, without elaborating.

Israel is currently tendering off 19 offshore blocks to exploration and production companies but it has avoided offering areas close to the disputed border.

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Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said he met Monday with U.S. envoy David Satterfield, who has shuttled between the countries with the aim of demarcating their maritime boundary over past weeks.

Steinitz "expressed Israel's openness'" to negotiations "for the benefit of both countries' interests in developing natural gas reserves and oil."

Israel and Lebanon, technically still at war, each claim some 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of sea as within their own exclusive economic zones. Earlier this month, Lebanese President Michel Aoun said he presented Satterfied with Lebanon's "united stance" and encouraged U.S. diplomatic involvement.

Satterfied returns to Beirut on Tuesday.

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