By Xinhua
Ramallah : Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that it was time to create an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel to end 60 years of suffering.
Abbas made the remarks during a joint news conference with visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the West Bank city of Ramallah after their meeting.
He reiterated that Jerusalem should be the capital of the future state.
Rice, who arrived here earlier in the day for talks with the Palestinian leadership, is on her latest Mideast tour to prepare for a US-sponsored peace conference that is initially set for November where the yet-unspecified conferees will discus resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
During their meeting, Abbas and Rice focussed their attention on how to make the November peace conference successful.
“The conference should be a serious beginning leading to ending the Israeli occupation which has been in place since 1967, according to the international resolutions,” Abbas underlined.
Meanwhile, Abbas said he would meet US President George W. Bush when attending the UN General Assembly annual meetings, which is to start on Sep 25, “to continue intensive talks to reach a just and lasting peace in the Middle East”.
In July, Bush proposed to hold a peace conference in the US this autumn to find a way to resume the stalled peace process and end the Middle East conflict between the Arabs and Israel.