U.S., Israeli, Palestinian officials discuss possible peace deal

By Xinhua,

Washington : U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qurei discussed on Wednesday how to reach a possible peace deal before the end of this year.


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Before the three-way meeting, Rice met with Livni for discussions.

However, no tangible progress was reported through the new efforts by the Bush administration to try to reach a deal before its term expires early next year.

What is worse, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced Wednesday that he decided not to contend in the Kadima primary in September and would resign as soon as the new party leader was chosen, due to the criminal investigations embroiled him in recent months.

However, the United States responded immediately that it would continue to try to clinch a peace deal with any possible successor of Olmert.

The Bush administration has hoped that such a deal could be reached before the end of this year. However, the Middle East peace process has made little progress since the United States hosted a Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland in November last year.

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