US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Zionist and Palestinian leaders on Friday to take "hard decisions" to revive the Middle East peace process, which has stalled for almost three years.

US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Zionist and Palestinian leaders on Friday to take "hard decisions" to revive the Middle East peace process, which has stalled for almost three years.

"We're getting toward a time now when hard decisions need to be made," he told a news conference in Tel Aviv at the end of his fourth visit to the region since he took office in February.

Kerry has been pressing the Zionist entity and the Palestinians to resume peace talks that broke down in September 2010.

He said there was "one way" to make peace a reality, "and that is through direct negotiations.

"Ultimately it is the Israeli and Palestinian people who both decide the outcome... and who will get the greatest benefits" from a resumption of talks, he said.

Kerry also warned on Friday that there was a time limit on the possibility of peace, after Thursday comments from British Foreign Secretary William Hague -- also on a visit to the region -- that the prospects of a two-state solution "cannot be kept alive forever."

"It is clear that in the long run the status quo is not sustainable," Kerry said.

The secretary of state also touched on the sensitive issue of Jewish settlement building in the Palestinian territories, one of the principal issues over which the 2010 talks stalled.

"The US position on settlements is clear and has not changed... we believe they should stop," he said.

Palestinians demand a freeze on settlement building in the occupied West Bank, including annexed Arab east Jerusalem, before they will return to the negotiating table.

But Kerry stressed the priority was for talks "without preconditions."