Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and their negotiating teams will meet today to try to narrow differences over a US-led conference on Palestinian statehood.
The Israeli and Palestinian leaders met today to instruct their negotiating teams to draft a document that will serve as the foundation for a Middle East conference on Palestinian statehood.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is under cabinet pressure not to give ground on sensitive issues and is seeking a broadbrush joint statement for the US-sponsored international gathering expected to convene in mid- to late November.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wants an explicit "framework" agreement with a timetable for final-status talks on issues such as borders, the future of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, and for implementing any statehood accords.
Senior Israeli official
Mr Olmert and Mr Abbas convened for a one-on-one meeting at the Israeli leader's residence in Jerusalem and were to be joined later in the session by the two drafting teams, officials on both sides said.
Abbas negotiator Ahmed Qurie said the Palestinians would "exert maximum effort" to complete the document ahead of the conference. "We'll see if this will be possible. It will not be easy," he told Reuters.
A senior Israeli official concurred: "Smooth negotiations will not happen."
Israeli and Palestinian officials said the leaders would for the first time give their negotiating teams instructions on how to proceed, setting parameters for talks on key issues.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to return to the region in about two weeks to assess the pace of preparations for a conference to be held in Annapolis, Maryland. The conference is part of a US-led effort to bolster Abbas and his West Bank-based government and to isolate Hamas Islamists who seized control of the Gaza Strip in June.
Israel has released close to 90 Palestinian prisoners, most of them members of Mr Abbas's Fatah faction, this week as a goodwill gesture. Mr Abbas's office said more needed to be done.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in Gaza the Olmert-Abbas meetings were aimed at ensuring "fundamental Palestinian issues" would not be addressed.
It was unclear to what extent Mr Olmert was prepared to delve deeply into the "final-status" matters with a Palestinian leader who holds sway only in the West Bank.
Mr Olmert has been weakened politically by corruption scandals and criticism of his handling of last year's war in Lebanon.