US:Hours before President George Bush opened yesterday's Middle East conference at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, it remained uncertain if Israelis and Palestinians would even agree a joint statement to launch peace talks.
Israel was resisting the setting of a one-year deadline for talks, while Palestinians objected to a proposal to recognise Israel as a Jewish state, fearing that such a reference could prejudice negotiations on the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland. Meanwhile, both Israel and the US were resisting Palestinian efforts to include language about "ending the occupation that started in 1967," a reference to disputed Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Early yesterday, the two sides agreed to a statement committing themselves to seeking a comprehensive peace treaty by the end of 2008, a few weeks before Mr Bush will leave office. The statement does not refer to Israel as a Jewish state and includes no mention of the 1967 borders, but it promises that any peace treaty would deal with "all outstanding issues, including all core issues without exception".
Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas said that final status issues would include "Jerusalem, refugees, borders, settlements, water and security".
Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert said he was willing to deal with issues that had been avoided until now. "We will do this directly, openly and courageously. We will not avoid any subject."
The talks will begin within two weeks and the two sides will meet every fortnight after that, with a steering committee made up of representatives from Israel and the Palestinian Authority conducting the negotiations.
Crucially, the talks will run in parallel with the implementation of the "road map" agreed in 2003 under the auspices of an international quartet made up of the US, the EU, Russia and the UN. As Israelis and Palestinians disagreed in recent years on how to implement the international plan, the road map has sometimes appeared to be a road block to peace.
Israel has insisted until now that no progress can be made on substantive issues until the Palestinians "dismantle terrorist infrastructure", while Palestinians complain that Israel has failed to take its first step on the road map by freezing illegal settlements in the West Bank.
Under yesterday's agreement, the US will monitor how the road map is being implemented and "unless otherwise agreed by the parties, implementation of the future peace treaty will be subject to the implementation of the road map, as judged by the United States".
This responsibility underscores the central role US commitment will play in determining if the ambitious one-year timetable for peace has any chance of success. The presence in Annapolis of Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia and Syria, reflects assurances the Bush administration has given to Arab governments that it is serious about the talks.
Both Mr Olmert and Mr Abbas also held out the prospect of a broader peace in the Middle East with a resolution of Israel's dispute with Syria over the Golan Heights and a dispute about some Lebanese enclaves.
"There isn't a single Arab state in the north, in the east or in the south with which we do not seek peace," Mr Abbas said.
"There isn't a single Muslim state with which we do not want to establish diplomatic relations," Mr Olmert said.
Reaction within Israel and the Palestinian territories to yesterday's statement highlighted two major impediments to the plan's success - the failure to involve Hamas, which won the most recent Palestinian parliamentary elections and controls Gaza; and the neuralgic nature of issues such as refugees and the future of Jerusalem for many Israelis.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri dismissed the conference as serving only to advance "Israeli and American interests and not to serve Palestinian interests".
Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu labelled the summit "a continuation of one-sided concessions". Mr Bush warned that although the US would make every effort to help the talks to succeed, their outcome depended on the Israelis and Palestinians themselves. "The success of these efforts will require that all parties show patience and flexibility and meet their responsibilities," he said.