Abbas, Olmert hold talks in Jerusalem

By Xinhua

Jerusalem : Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived at Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s residence in Jerusalem Tuesday for summit talks ahead of a US-sponsored peace conference this autumn.


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Under tight security, Abbas’ motorcade arrived at Olmert’s residence shortly after 12 noon.

It is the second face-to-face meeting of the two leaders this month. They last met in the West Bank city of Jericho Aug 6.

“They will be speaking about the development of Palestinian governing institutions, bolstering Abbas’ government and issues concerning Israelis and Palestinians living side-by-side,” an Israeli government spokesman was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, Israeli daily Ha’aretz quoted a senior Israeli government official as saying that the framework of discussions between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) will be expanded to include the establishment of negotiating teams for each side, which will discuss the agreement of principles to be prepared ahead of the peace summit.

Ha’aretz said that the main progress in the talks so far has been Olmert’s acceding to the inclusion in the agreement of principles of the “core issues,” such as Jerusalem, permanent borders and refugees.

This represents a reversal of earlier position of Olmert, who insisted that raising these issues might lead to a breakdown in the negotiations, said Ha’aretz.

The government official told Ha’aretz that Olmert has been persuaded to present the Palestinians with a political horizon, “so that Abbas will not lose the support of the Palestinian mass.”

Olmert and Abbas are expected to meet again before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year holiday which will fall on Sep 13.

Before Olmert and Abbas’ Tuesday meeting, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad met Monday.

According to Israeli media, the two agreed to promote economic, social and environmental cooperation between Israel and the PNA.

The cooperation would be realized in meetings between parallel committees and organizations as well as direct contact between municipality leaders on joint projects.

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