The first peace talks in seven years between Israel and the Palestinians opened in discord today with the Palestinians demanding a halt to settlement building and Israel calling for a crackdown on militants.
The tensions, coming just two weeks after a US-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, highlighted the difficulties ahead for negotiators trying to reach agreement on a Palestinian state before US President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009.
Wednesday's negotiating session was supposed to lay the ground for detailed talks on final-status issues, including borders and the future of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.
Instead, the first round was dominated by Palestinian demands Israel halt plans to build new houses on occupied land near Jerusalem and concerns about Israeli military activity in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, officials on both sides said.
"This process does not have a quick fix," Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said after the nearly 90-minute session. "No one underestimates the seriousness and gravity of some of the issues on the table. It's clear the issues on the table will demand ongoing diplomatic efforts."
The talks came one day after Israel mounted one of its biggest raids into Gaza since the Islamist group seized control of the coastal territory in June. Five militants were killed.
Israel's army chief, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, told a security conference in Tel Aviv that a big military offensive in Gaza may be inevitable, though he acknowledged smaller Israeli strikes were having an impact on the ability of militants to fire makeshift rockets into southern Israel.
The mayor of Israel's border town of Sderot resigned in protest over the government's failure to halt the rockets.
The negotiating teams met at an Ottoman-era villa overlooking Jerusalem's Old City, with Israel's barrier in and around the occupied West Bank visible in the distance.
Though Israeli officials described the atmosphere as "tense," they said the negotiators agreed to meet again in about two weeks at an undisclosed location.
Today's talks went ahead despite calls by some Palestinians for a boycott over Israeli plans to build new houses at a settlement near Bethlehem known to Israelis as Har Homa and Palestinians as Abu Ghneim.
Israeli construction at the same settlement derailed a previous round of peace talks in 1997.