Abbas-Olmert agree to push peace talks ahead of Bush visit
JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed on Tuesday to start negotiations on the key issues at the heart of their conflict as they met on the eve of US President George W. Bush's visit to the region.
The peace process has stumbled since it was revived at a US-sponsored conference barely six weeks ago, largely over Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and Israeli assaults against Palestinian militants.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas decided that their top negotiators will discuss the thorniest issues of the decades-old conflict and continue to meet regularly, officials on both sides said.
Former Palestinian premier Ahmed Qorei and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will begin talks on the issues including Jewish settlements, Jerusalem and refugees, senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told reporters.
"It has been agreed that Abu Ala (Qorei) and Ms Livni start intensive meetings to immediately discuss all core issues of a final status agreement," he said.
"The president urged that the year of 2008 be made the year to reach peace," he said. "The intention is to see to it that we give peace a chance."
Bush arrives in Israel on Wednesday on his first visit as president in a bid to forge a lasting Middle East peace deal before his term ends in early 2009.
A senior Israeli government official told reporters that Livni and Qorei "were authorised to discuss the core issues and hold direct negotiations on these issues toward a peace agreement.
"Whenever problems or difficulties arise during their talks, the issues will be referred to Olmert and Abu Mazen (Abbas) to solve," he said, adding that the two leaders will aim to meet every two weeks.
The Palestinian side also demanded that Israel stop settlement activity and military operations against militants, Erakat said.
The two issues have been the key sources of discord since the two sides formally revived their peace talks after a seven-year lull at a US conference in late November and are expected to feature prominently during Bush's visit.
The Palestinians have repeatedly said Israel must halt settlement activity on occupied land if the peace talks are to succeed, and Bush has called the issue a "problem."
"We negotiate the issue of Jerusalem, we don't dictate the outcome with the continuation of more settlements," Erakat said on Tuesday.
Settlers said on Tuesday they had established two new wildcat outposts on the fringes of Ramallah and Bethlehem near the settlements of Efrat and Psagot.
Dozens of settlers also planned to spend the night in nine other wildcat outposts in the West Bank, settler sources added.
Underscoring the contentiousness of the issue, several thousand Israeli right-wing activists formed a human chain in the cold and rain around the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, protesting against sharing sovereignty over the city with the Palestinians under any final peace deal.
Israeli-Palestinian tensions have also been running high because of continuing Israeli military operations in Gaza and the West Bank.
The West Bank incursions are undermining Palestinian government efforts to reassert its authority in the territory and clamp down on law and order.
A military spokesman said on Tuesday Israeli forces will impose a complete lockdown on the West Bank "for security reasons" during Bush's trip.
It will be the first visit by a sitting US president in nine years, aiming to bolster the fledgling peace efforts.
Bush will stay for three days before continuing to several Arab states to shore up US allies in the face of what he calls the Iranian nuclear "threat."
Deputy premier Haim Ramon told public television that Iran's nuclear programme would also be high on the agenda in Israel.
"The main topic concerns Iran. The United States leads the struggle against Iran's nuclear programme and the free world follows. We hope to see more international sanctions against Iran" over its uranium enrichment, he said.
Israel and the West fear Iran's nuclear programme could be a cover to develop nuclear weapons, a charge denied by Tehran.
Bush becomes only the second Palestinian president ever to visit the Palestinian territories, following Bill Clinton's trip in December 1998.
Unlike Clinton, Bush will not travel to Gaza, which has been controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas since June 2007 since it routed forces loyal to Abbas.
Hundreds of Gazans staged protests against Bush's visit and called on the international community to pressure Israel to lift its restrictions on freedom of movement in and out of the densely populated territory.
