WASHINGTON

The US is "actively" pursuing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state "with real security guarantees" for Israel, a State Department spokesman said on Wednesday.

"We are actively pursuing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with real security guarantees for Israel, because we do believe that is the best way to bring about lasting peace and security for Israel, for Palestinians and for the region," Matthew Miller told the reporters.

Miller said the US has ongoing policy planning processes about how best to advance the establishment of the Palestinian state.

"We support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and we do a lot of work inside the government to think about how to bring that about, and you see us talk about that work publicly when we're in the region," he stressed.

Without commenting on the internal work that the US does to advance that objective, Miller said there has been a "policy shift."