Abbas eyes accord with Olmert on key issues ahead of Mideast meeting

Oct 1, 2007, 14:29 GMT

Amman - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday that discussions with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert should produce an agreement on key issues before a US-sponsored Middle East conference in mid November.

'We are negotiating with the Israelis with a view to reaching an agreement which we will carry to the international meeting for approval before holding negotiations on the details,' Abbas told reporters after talks in Amman with Jordan's King Abdullah II.

'The agreement should be comprehensive and address all final status issues including Jerusalem, refugees, frontiers, settlements, security and water,' he said.

'If we find solutions to these questions and come up with a vision for the Palestinian state we well carry them to the international conference,' he added.

Abbas is due to meet Olmert in Jerusalem on Wednesday. He expected participants in the Middle East peace conference, to be held in the United States next month, to include 12 Arab countries and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa.

The meeting will also be attended by 25 other states including permanent members of the UN Security Council, members of the Middle East Quartet, and a number of Islamic countries such as Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia, he said.

The Palestinian president said he briefed King Abdullah on his talks with US President George W Bush last week and they planned further consultations after Abbas' new meeting with Olmert on Wednesday.

The two leaders were in agreement that the Middle East conference should come up with 'tangible results that lead to a just solution for the Palestinian question and set the stage for a new era of coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis on the basis of the two-state solution', a royal court statement said.